Fruit rust thrips: Chaetanaphothrips signipennis
Symptoms of damage:
- Rusty reddish discolouration on the fingers
- Yellowing of leaves and rusty growth over fruit
Identification of pest:
- Eggs: Eggs are laid either at stem or undersurface of the fruit
- Larvae: Are wingless, whitish in colour resembling adult lice
- Adult: Yellowish white with the shaded wing.
Management:
- Destroy all volunteer plants and old neglected plantations
- Use healthy and pest free suckers for planting
- Hot water treatment prior to planting.
- Bunch covers (which cover the full length of the bunch) protection applied very early.
- Regular checking of fruit under the bunch covers is essential to ensure that damage
- Bunches, pseudostem and the suckers should be sprayed chlorpyrifos
- Soil application fipronil and bifenthrin
- Field release of coccinelid predators like lacewings, ladybird beetles
Source-
- TamilNadu Agritech Portal
