Jewel beetle: Sphenoptera indica
Symptoms of damage:
- Wilting of plants in patches
- The grub burrows into the stem close to the soil surface and kills the plant
- Infested fields show dead and dying plants, which when pulled up and examined grub/pupa can be seen in hollowed stem
Identification of pest:
- Larvae: Slow movers having globular head and elongated, dorso-ventrally flattened body
- Adult: Shiny Beetle, 10 mm long and 3 mm wide
Management:
- Deep ploughing in the summer
- Use well decomposed organic manure
- Manual destruction of infested plant stems may help in reducing its population
- Conserve braconids, dragonflies, trichogrammatids, NPV, green muscardine fungus
- Applying carbofuran granules@ 2.25 kg a.i /ha in the planting row can be effective prophylactic measure.
Source-
- TamilNadu Agritech Portal
