PEST MANAGEMENT IN FOREST NURSERIES

NON-INSECTS PESTS

RODENTS

Of all the vertebrate pests, field rats are known to cause damage to seedlings in forest in forest nursery. Rodent damage to seedlings occurs in two ways (i) debarking and ii) slicing the stem. Occasionally the damage extents to xylem vessels, leading to eventually the death of the plants

CONTROL MEASURES

For rodent control, zinc phosphide is the most commonly used rodenticide as bait poisoning. The bait is prepared in the form of pellets as follows. Zinc phosphate 3g, wheat flour 100g, Jaggari 5g and edible oil 5g. The pellets should be prepared by mixing water in wheat flour-zinc phosphide mixture, followed by coating of oil and Jaggari. These baits are placed in burrow and then covered with some material. The rodents are also killed by the use of fumigants (Aluminium phosphide). The fumigant is placed in the burrows and then sealed.