Crop Protection :: Pests of Pomegranate
Anar butterfly: Deudorix (Virachola) isocrates
Symptoms of damage |
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- Caterpillar bores into young fruits
- Feeds on internal contents (pulp and seeds)
- Fruit rotting and dropping
Identification of pest
- Larvae - dark brown, short and stout, covered with short hairs
- Adult - bluish brown butterfly
- Female – V shaped patch on forewing
Management
- Collect and destroy damaged fruits
- Clean cultivation as weed plants serve as alternate hosts
- Endemic areas - grow less susceptible varieties
- Adopt ETL (5 eggs/plant)
- Cover the fruit with polythene bags when the fruits are up to 5 cm
- Use light trap @ 1/ ha to monitor the activity of adults
- Insecticides: malathion 50 EC 0.1% or dimethoate 30 EC 0.06%, two rounds, one at flower formation and next at fruit set.
- Flowering stage - spray NSKE 5% or neem formulations 2 ml/1
- Apply dimethoate 30 EC 1.5 ml/1.
- Release Trichogramma chilonis at one lakh/acre.
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Adult |
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