Symptom of damage:

• Scrapping of leaf surface by young larvae.
• Older larvae, feeds upon central whorl, causing extensive defoliation.
• Whorl, tassel and cob fed by larva.

Identification of the pest:

• Egg masses (120-150 eggs/ egg mass) covered with scales
• Larvae wit h 4 black spots arranged (in square shape) on 8th and 9th abdominal segment
• Larvae with inverted “Y” shaped mark on head
• Male adult moth forewing brown with triangular white spots; females’ forewing grayish brown.

Management:

• Apply neem cake @ 250 kg/ha at the time of last ploughing.
• Seed treatment with cyantraniliprole 19.8% + thiamethoxam 19.8% FS @ 4 ml/kg seed.
• Border cropping with cowpea, gingelly, redgram or sunflower (garden land) and fodder sorghum (dry land) @ 3 rows.
• Set up FAW pheromone traps @ 12 nos./ha
• Spray azadirachtin 1500 ppm @ 2.5 lit/ha or chlorantraniliprole 18.5 SC @ 200ml/ha (or) flubendiamide 480SC@ 250ml/ha at early stage (15 - 20 DAE).
• Spray Metarhizium anisopliae (TNAU-MA-GDU isolate) @ 2.5 kg/ha or emamectin benzoate 5 SG @ 200g/ha or novaluron 10 EC @ 750 ml/ha or spinetoram 11.7 SC @ 250 ml/ha at late whorl stage (35 - 40 DAE).
• One of the insecticides recommended in late whorl stages can be used at cob formation stage if needed, but repetition to be avoided.