Gram pod borer: Helicoverpa armigera
Symptoms of damage
- The young larvae feeds on the chlorophyll of young leaves and skeletonize it.
- They feed voraciously on the foliage in early stage, may defoliate the plant and later they feed on flowers and pods.
Identification of the pest
- Eggs: Spherical in shape and creamy white in colour, laid singly
- Larva: Shows colour variation from greenish to brown. It has dark brown grey lines on the body with lateral white lines and also has dark and pale bands.
- Pupa: Brown in colour, occurs in soil, leaf, pod and crop debris
Adult
- Light pale brownish yellow stout moth.
- Forewings are olive green to pale brown with a dark brown circular spot in the centre.
- Hind wings are pale smoky white with a broad blackish outer margin.
Management
- Deep summer ploughing
- Install pheromone traps at a distance of 50 m @ 5 traps/ha for each insect pest.
- Erect bird perches @ 50/ha.
- Clip terminal shoots on 100 days of crop growth.
- Setting of light traps (1 light trap/5 acre) to kill moth population
- Dusting with Chlorpyriphos 1.5 % DP or fenvalerate 0.4% or quinolphos 1.5% @ 25 to 30 kg/ha
- Spray with Chlorpyriphos 1.5 % DP @1200 ml/ha or quinolphos 25 EC @ 1.0 lit/ha.
Source-
- TamilNadu Agritech Portal
