Mango Pest surveillance

Pest Surveillance: Thrips (Scirtothrips dorsalis), mite (Oligonychus mangiferus) (Rhaman and Sapra) and leaf weevils (Rhynchaenus mangiferae Fab.) are emerging as serious pests. The incidence of thrips on fruits (lemon size) was highest (24.5%) in Banganapalli and < 5% in Totapuri. Thrips infestation among dropped fruits ranged from 12-15%. The fruit borer (Citripestis eutraphera Meyrick) recorded enhanced infestation of 4.5% in Alphonso and 1-2% in Banganapalli. The unopened buds of Alphonso were found to be infested with blossom midge (Procantarina sp.) to the extent of 15-28% at different periods. Both male and female flowers were affected. The mite infestation on leaves prevailed almost throughout the year, peak during July – August. Among hoppers, Amrasca splendens Ghauri dominated in vegetative phase while Idioscpus nitidulus (Walker) was the dominant species (>90%) during blossom period distantly followed by I. nagpuriensis Pruthi (7%) across the varieties.

Mango fruit borer infestation (Citripestis eutraphera)

Management of hoppers and thrips 

Entomopathogens, azadirachtin and insecticides were evaluated for the management of leafhoppers (Idioscopus sp.), and thrips (Scirtothrips dorsalis). Four sprays of oil formulation of Metarhizium anisopliae (0.5 mL/l) at weekly interval resulted in 83.5% reduction in hopper population compared to 87.2% with two applications of imidacloprid @ 0.25 mL/l. It was also effective against thrips and brought 60% reduction in thrips population.

Healer cum Sealer for the management of mango stem borer

Healer cum Sealer for the management of mango stem borer
• The solution is permanent (meaning there is no reinfestation in the same season)
• The formulation completely blocks the unseen holes and as well visually seen holes

Specific Benefits:
• The tree is rejuvenated with nutrition
• The formulation can be tried even under mild rains (However immediate heavy rains may wash off the treated tunnels post treatment; after 48 hr the treatment is rain-fast)
• The formulation developed is cost effective

Mesh trappig technique

A simple mesh trapping technique was standardised to collect and monitor tree trunk borers. With this technique, it was found that besides trunk borer (Batocera rufomaculata De Geer), two other species of Cerambycidae viz., Gleneam ultiguttata Guerin-Meneville and Coptopsa edificatory (Fab.) were infesting mango. It also helped in recording the precise timing of adult emergence. The trunk borer (B. rufomaculata) was the first to emerge and the maximum emergence (4/10 trees) was recorded during second week of July. The next species to emerge was G. multiguttata in the fourth week of June followed by a buprestid and C. aedificator. Of these, G. multiguttata was numerically the most dominant species (mean 9.0/tree). B. rufomaculata emerged out from trunk of the mango tree while the other three species had emerged out of lateral branches. There was a positive correlation between stem borer infestation and tree age (+0.68). The lowest point of the occurrence of borer was 15 cm and the highest was 72.5 cm. Maximum number of bored holes was recorded at the first branching junction. The variety Alphonso and Langra had the highest infestation (20-25%) while Banganapalli had the lowest. Infestation was significantly more (42%) in high density plantation (3 x 3 m) than normally spaced trees.

Stem borer diversity