Cardamom Hairy caterpillars: Eupterote cardamomi, E. canarica, E. fabia
Symptoms of damage:
- These appear sporadically in enormous populations at intervals of several years and cause heavy damage to the foliage.
- Caterpillars are gregarious in habit and they congregate on the trunks of shade trees during daytime and drop down on the cardamom plants during night time.
- They fed voraciously on leaves and defoliating the whole cardamom plants.
- Usually, the damage is observed during October-December
Identification of pest:
E. cardamomi
- Eggs: Dome shaped and lay on the undersurface of the leaves of shade trees.
- Larva: Robust, bluish black with pale brown head, white hairs and dorsal conical tuff of hairs.
- Pupa: Pupation takes place in soil
- Adult: Large moth, pale yellow with wavy lines and a series of spots near the outer margin of wings
E. canaraica
- Eggs: Pale yellowish in colour and lays on the undersurface of the leaves of shade trees.
- Larva: Robust with red head and black ‘V’ shaped vertex border.
- Pupa: Pupation takes place in soil
- Adult: Large moth brownish yellow with two diagonal bunds and zig zag lines on wings.
E. fabia
- Larva: Robust, dark purplish brown with a black head, grey tipped long hairs and red prologs.
- Pupa: Pupation takes place on dried leaves
- Adult: Large bright yellow moth with prominent black wavy lines and patches on wings.
Management:
- Hairy caterpillar incidence can be checked by lopping off and burning branches of shade trees in which eggs are laid.
- Gradual elimination of shade trees favoured for egg laying will reduce the incidence.
- Caterpillars that congregate at the base of shade trees can be collected and killed.
- Moths can be attracted to light during the night and by installing light traps, the moths can be collected and killed.
- Spray monocrotophos or quinalphos 3ml/lit.
Source-
- TamilNadu Agritech Portal
