Termites: Odontotermes spp
Symptoms of damage:
- Wilting of plants in patches
- Termites penetrate and hollow out the taproot and stem thus kill the plant.
- Boreholes into pods and damage the seed.
- It removes the soft corky tissue from between the veins of pods causing scarification, weaken the shells, make them liable to entry and growth of Aspergillus flavus that produces aflotoxins
- The termites are endemic in red and sandy soils.
- These are social insects, live in termataria, in distinct castes, workers, king and queen.
- Workers’ are small (4 mm) and have a soft, white body and a brown head
Management:
- Digging the termataria and destruction of the queen is most important in termite management
- Use well rotten organic manure
- Harvest the groundnut as soon as they are matured, early removal of the produce from the field will reduce the chances of termite damage to pods
- Apply chlorpyriphos 20 EC to control termites
- Dust chlorpyriphos @ 30-40 kg/ha in soil before sowing in endemic areas
- Seed treatment with chlorpyriphos @ 6.5ml /kg of seed may reduce termite damage.
Source-
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TamilNadu Agritech Portal
