Mealy bugs: Phenacoccus sp, Ferrisa spand Maconellicoccus sp
Symptom of damage
- Heavy clustering of mealy bugs usually seen under surface of leaves as a thick mat with waxy secretion
- Excrete copious amount of honeydew on which the fungus sooty mould grow
- Affected plants appear sick and black, resulting reduced fruiting capacity
Management
- Remove the alternate weeds hosts
- Monitor the incidence regularly and look for crawler emergence
- Take up the management at initial stage to get maximum control
- Wherever necessary use neem based botanical insecticides such as neem oil 2% or NSKE 5% orfish oil rosin soap 25g/litre of water
- Use of Encyrtid parasitoids, Acerophaguspapayae@ 100 per village againstParacoccusmarginatusand AenasiusbambawaeliagainstPhenococcussolenopsisare recommended
- Use of dimethoate or profenophos 2 ml/lit may be adopted as an alternative.
Source-
- TamilNadu Agritech Portal
