The important pests of sugarcane found in the state are early shot borers, top shoot borers mealy bugs, white grubs, termites and rats. To control these pests from damaging sugarcane crop ,proper identification and management should be adopted which is given below:
Major pests of Sugarcane are:-
S.No. |
Pests |
|
| 1. | Early shoot borer |  |
| 2. | Internode borer |  |
| 3. | Top shoot borer |  |
| 4. | White flies |  |
| 5. | Sugarcane wolly aphid |  |
| 6. | Mealybug |  |
| 7. | White grub |  |
| 8. | Scale insects |  |
| 9. | Termites |  |
| 10. | Grasshopper |  |
Integrated pests management of Sugarcane
- Remove stubble and debris of previous crops.
- Deep summer ploughing.
- Inter-culture and hand weeding.
- Timely irrigation.
- Proper crop rotation: paddy, wheat, maize, jowar, potato, vegetables, pulses, oilseeds etc.
- Collect and destroy the adult beetles on trees like Azadirachta indica (neem), Ailanthus excelsa and Acacia sps. Helps in minimizing root grub infestation.
- Resistant/Tolerant varieties:
Pests |
Sugarcane varieties |
| 1.Early shoot borer | CO 312, CO 421, CO 661, CO 917 and CO 853 |
| 2.Internode bore | CO 975, CO 7304, COJ 46 CO-285, CO-453 and CO-77-1 |
| 3.Top shoot borer | COJ-69, CO-1158, CO-67, CO 419, CO 745, CO 6516, CO 859, CO1158 and CO 7224 |
| 4. Scales | CO-617, 678, 671, 1132 |
| 5.Woolly aphid | COVC 2003 165 |
| 6.White grubs | Co 6304, Co 1158, Co 5510 |
| 7.Mealy bug | CO 439, CO 443, CO 720, CO 730 and CO 7704 |
- Earthing up after 4-5 weeks after planting (Early shoot borer).
- Planting in deep furrows of 20 cm depth.
- Always use well rotten Farm Yard Manure (FYM) to avoid the damage by termites.
- Avoid untimely high nitrogenous fertilizers to minimize the pyrilla, white woolly aphid and stalk borer attack.
- Irrigation at closer intervals for managing early shoot borer.
- Detrashing of canes in the scale insect, mealy bugs, white woolly aphid and stalk borers prone areas.
- Intercrop: Onion or Garlic or Coriander for early shoot borer.
- Removal of water shoots to destroy scale insect stages, stalk borers and white woolly aphid.
- Practice deep harvesting to destroy stubbles. Take green burning which will be helpful to conserve moisture, predators and parasitoids and minimize the growth of the weed except in black bug endemic pockets.
- Trash mulching at the rate of 3 tons per ha immediately after planting for early shoot borer.
- Dig the termatoria and destroy the queen.
- Paired row system of planting.
- Rapping of canes all along the rows for woolly aphids.
- Propping the canes to prevent lodging to reduce the damage by stalk borer and rodents.
Source-
-
TamilNadu Agritech Portal
