Guava

Fruit Borers

Symptoms of damage

Caterpillar bores into young fruits

Feeds on internal contents (pulp and seeds)

Dry up and fall off in without ripening

Identification of pest

Larva : Pale greenish with pink tinge and fine hairs with dark head

Adult : Yellowish moth with black spots on the wing and body.

Management

Collect and destroy damaged fruits

Clean cultivation as weed plants serve as alternate hosts

Use light trap @ 1/ ha to monitor the activity of adults

Insecticides: malathion 50 EC 0.1% two rounds, one at flower formation and next at fruit set.

Fruit borers

Symptoms of damage

Caterpillar bores into young fruits

Feeds on internal contents (pulp and seeds)

Identification of pest

Larva : dark brown, short and stout, covered with short hairs

Adult : blusih brown butterfly. Female – V shaped patch on forewing

Management

Collect and destroy damaged fruits

Clean cultivation as weed plants serve as alternate hosts

Use light trap @ 1/ ha to monitor the activity of adults

Insecticides: malathion 50 EC 0.1% two rounds, one at flower formation and next at fruit set.

Fruit borer

Symptoms of damage

Caterpillar found on flower buds and fruit

Identification of pest

Adult : metallic red coloured butterfly

Management

Collect and destroy damaged fruits

Clean cultivation as weed plants serve as alternate hosts

Use light trap @ 1/ ha to monitor the activity of adults

Insecticides: malathion 50 EC 0.1% two rounds, one at flower formation and next at fruit set.

Guava fruit fly

Symptoms of damage

Adults and maggots attack semi – ripe fruits

Oviposition punctures on fruits

Maggots destroy and convert pulp into a bad smelling

Discoloured semi liquid mass

Identification of pest

Adult : Brown or dark brown with hyaline wings and yellow legs

Diachasmimorpha kraussi

Management

Collect and destroy fallen and infested fruits

Summer ploughing to expose pupa

Use methyl eugenol lure trap (25/ha) to monitor and kill adults of fruit flies

Prepare methyl eugenol and malathion 50 EC mixture at 1:1 ratio( take 10 ml mixture/ trap)

Inseciticides: malathion 50 EC 0.05%

Bait spray combining molasses or jaggery 10g/l and one of the insecticides,

malathion 50 EC 2 ml/l

dimethoate 30 EC 1ml/lit, two rounds at fortnight interval before ripening of fruits

Field release of parasitoids such as

Opius compensatus

Spalangia philippinensis,

parasitoid wasp, Diachasmimorpha kraussi

Bark eating caterpillars

Symptoms of damage

Young trees may succumb to the attack.

Caterpillars bore into the trunk or junction of branches.

Presence of gallery made out of silk and frass.

Caterpillars remain hidden in the tunnel during day time come out at night and feed on the bark.

Identification of pest

Adult is stout yellowish –brown moth with brown wavy markings on the forewings

Males are smaller than the females.

Symptom

Adult

Management

Remove and destroy dead and severely affected branches of the tree

Remove alternate host, silk cotton and other hosts

Swab Coal tar + Kerosene @ 1:2 or Carbaryl 50 WP 20 g / lit of water on the basal portion of the trunk up to 3 feet heigh

Scraping the loose bark to prevent oviposition by adult beetles.

Padding with monocrotophos 36 WSC 10 ml in 2.5 cm /tree soaked in absorbent cotton.

If infestations are severe then apply the copper oxychloride paste on the trunk of the tree.

Hook out the grub from the bore hole

After apply monocrotophos 36 WSC 10 to 20 ml/ hole

Apply carbofuran 3G 5 g per hole and plug with mud.

Tea mosquito bug

Symptoms of damage

Nymphs and adults make punctures on petiole, tender shoots and fruits

Brownish – black necrotic patches develop on foliage

Elongate streaks and patches develop on shoots

Corky scab formation on fruits

Identification of pest

Nymph and adult: Reddish brown, elongate bug with black head, red thorax

black and white abdomen

Management

Collect and destroy the damaged plant parts

Insecticides: malathion 50 EC 0.2% at bimonthly interval at the time of flowering

Green Scale

Symptoms of damage

Nymphs and adults suck the sap from leaves

Yellowing of leaves.

Identification of pest

Nymph: Pale lemon yellow.

Adult – green colour, flat and oval shaped soft scale

Management

Prune and destroy the infested shoots at initial stage of infestation.

Spray monocrotophos 1ml/lit

After two weeks release 20 predator beetles viz.,C. montrouzieribeetle per tree.

Encourage parasitoids viz., Aneristis sp Coccophgagus cowperi, C. bogoriensis

Tailed mealy bug

Symptoms of damage

Premature dropping of fruit.

Identification of pest

Nymph - Yellowish to pale white.

Adult - Females apterous, long, slender covered with white waxy secretions

Management

Triozhophos 2 ml+ neem oil 5 ml/1, phosalone 35 EC 1.5 ml+ neem oil 5 ml/1.

Release Cryptolaemous montrouzieri beetles @ 10/tree.

Spiraling whitefly

Symptoms of damage

Nymphs and adults suck the sap from leaves

Honey dew - development of sooty mould fungus

Yellowing of leaves.

Dropping of affected leaves.

Identification of pest

Nymph - short glass like rods of wax along the sides of the body

Adult - Powdery white, active during early morning hours.

Management

Field sanitation

Removal of host plants

Installation of yellow sticky traps

During heavy infestation - application of imidacloprid 200SL at 0.01% or triazophos 40EC at 0.06%

Spray neem oil 3% or NSKE 5%

Release of predators viz., Coccinellid predator, Cryptolaemus montrouzieri

Release of parasitoids viz., Encarsia haitierrsis and E.guadeloupae

Source: https://tnau.ac.in/