Insect Pests of Fruit, Plantation, Medicinal & Aromatic Crops (2+1)

1.Whitefly

1.Whitefly Bemesia tabaci Genu. (Aleyrodidae: Hemiptera)

Damage

• Both nymphs and adults feed on cell sap from leaves causing chlorotic sopts and yellowing and drying of leaves.
  
• Pre-mature defoliation, yellowing and sooty mould are typical symptoms.
Bionomics

• Adults are minute with yellow body covered with white waxy bloom.
  
• Stalked eggs are laid on the undersurface of leaves.
  
• EP: 3-5 days; NP: 9-14 days during summer, EP:5-33 days ; NP:17-33 days during winter. PP: 2-8 days. LC: 14-107 days.
Management

• Avoid growing of brinjal in summer if the whitefly is a serious problem in that area.
• Adopt crop rotation using non-host like cereals which helps to reduce whitefly population.
• Remove alternative hosts and weed hosts.
• Use nitrogenous fertilizers judiciously to avoid excessive growth.
• Set up yellow sticky traps @ 12 per hectare to manage whitefly
• Avoid the usage of resurgence causing insecticides viz., pyrethriods, dimethoate, endosulfan, phosalone and monocrotophos.
• Use entomophopathogenic fungus, Paecilomyces farinosus.
• Spray fish oil rosin soap @ 1 kg in 40 litre of water + teepol.
• Spray dimethoate @ 1 0:1 or malathion 2 ml or methyl demeton 1 ml or triazophos 1.5 ml / litre of water.