Skip to main content

Biological control of black caterpillar in coconut

Among the insect pests of coconut, the black headed caterpillar is the most notorious and dreaded. It often assumes severe proportions in the coastal and backwater tracts.

The incidence of coconut black headed caterpillar is observed regularly on fish pond bund coconut palms and sole coconut gardens especially from October to April months.
Recent times
In recent years the outbreak of this pest was observed regularly in Visakhapatnam, East and West Godavari districts of A.P. The caterpillar lives on the lower surface of the leaves in galleries made of excreta and silken web and feeds on the chlorophyll tissues. Affected trees present a burnt up appearance.
The periodic out breaks of this pest can be successfully managed by adopting a strategy based on biological control. This strategy was taken to the farmers’ field and it was found quite effective. A severe outbreak of this leaf-eating caterpillar was observed in coconut plantations of Dwarapudi village of Mandapeta mandal in East Godavari district of A.P. The farmers of this village approached the Horticultural Research Station, Ambajipeta, wherein All India Coordinated Research Project on Palms of ICAR is operating, requesting for biological intervention since they were not in favour of chemical sprays.
Alternative
Biological control presents one alternative to the use of insecticides and is the most effective method to manage this pest on eco-friendly basis.
The outbreak of this caterpillar was observed in many coconut growing villages of coastal districts and was effectively suppressed by systematic and inundative release of stage specific parasitoids in pest infested gardens.
In case of low to medium incidence of the pest the parasitoids are released after assessing the pest damage at fortnightly and monthly intervals.
The parasitoids were supplied at no cost basis to farmers.
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

NGT terminates chairmen of pollution control boards in 10 states (downtoearth,)

Cracking the whip on 10 State Pollution Control Boards (SPCBs) for ad-hoc appointments, the National Green Tribunal has ordered the termination of Chairpersons of these regulatory authorities. The concerned states are Himachal Pradesh, Sikkim, Tamil Nadu, Uttarakhand, Kerala, Rajasthan, Telangana, Haryana, Maharashtra and Manipur. The order was given last week by the principal bench of the NGT, chaired by Justice Swatanter Kumar. The recent order of June 8, 2017, comes as a follow-up to an NGT judgment given in August 2016. In that judgment, the NGT had issued directions on appointments of Chairmen and Member Secretaries of the SPCBs, emphasising on crucial roles they have in pollution control and abatement. It then specified required qualifications as well as tenure of the authorities. States were required to act on the orders within three months and frame Rules for appointment [See Box: Highlights of the NGT judgment of 2016 on criteria for SPCB chairperson appointment]. Having ...
Post a Comment
Click Here To Read more »

High dose of Vitamin C and B3 can kill colon cancer cells: study (downtoearth)

In a first, a team of researchers has found that high doses of Vitamin C and niacin or Vitamin B3 can kill cancer stem cells. A study published in Cell Biology International showed the opposing effects of low and high dose of vitamin C and vitamin B3 on colon cancer stem cells. Led by Bipasha Bose and Sudheer Shenoy, the team found that while low doses (5-25 micromolar) of Vitamin C and B3 proliferate colon cancer stem cells, high doses (100 to 1,000 micromolar) killed cancer stem cells. Such high doses of vitamins can only be achieved through intravenous injections in colon cancer patients. The third leading cause of cancer deaths worldwide, colon cancer can be prevented by an intake of dietary fibre and lifestyle changes. While the next step of the researchers is to delineate the mechanisms involved in such opposing effects, they also hope to establish a therapeutic dose of Vitamin C and B3 for colon cancer stem cell therapy. “If the therapeutic dose gets validated under in vivo...
1 comment
Click Here To Read more »

What's ailing Namami Gange programme?(DTE)

Winters are extremely hectic for Sushma Patel, a vegetable grower in Uttar Pradesh’s Chunar town. Her farm is in the fertile plains of Ganga where people grow three crops a year. But this is the only season when she can grow vegetables. And before that, she needs to manually dig out shreds of plastic and wrappers from her one-hectare (ha) farm. “This is all because of the nullah,” she says, pointing at an open drain that runs through her field, carrying sewage from the neighbourhood to the Ganga. “Every monsoon, the drain overflows and inundates the field with a thick, black sludge and plastic debris. We cannot even go near the field as the stench of sewage fills the air,” she says. But Patel has no one to complain to as this is the way of life for most people in this ancient town. About 70 per cent of the people in Chunar depend on toilets that have on-site sanitation, such as septic tanks and pits. In the absence of a proper disposal or management system, people simply dump the faec...
2 comments
Click Here To Read more »