PESTICIDE USE IN MANGO IPM

Capt. S. K. BHANDARI
& the ASFIC team
+91 9358525643

BACKGROUND
Quite often the cultural, physical, mechanical and other
agro-technology practices are not sufficient to keep the
insect pests below the level of economic losses.
Therefore, the chemical pesticides are resorted to both as
preventive and curative measures to minimize the insect
pest damage.
But chemical spray is to be minimized and should be need
based.
A rational rotation of insecticide is desirable to counteract
the tendency of pest to develop field resistance.

BACKGROUND
More than 100 insect species are known to infest mango plants.
Among these, about a dozen are found more severe causing
considerable loss to the crop and so may be known as major
pests of mango.
These are Mango hoppers, mealy bugs, stem borer, fruit fly,
stone weevil, scale insect, leaf Webber, leaf miner, and leaf
eating caterpillars are some of the important yield reducing
insect pests of mango.
Several insecticides either alone or in combination with other
pest management techniques have been found effective for the
control of these insect pests.

 Key pests
Scales
Mites
Thrips
Mealybugs

Key diseases
Anthracnose
Powdery mildew

THRIPS
Florida flower thrip
Redbanded thrip
The life cycle is about three weeks and
several generations are possible each
year.
Redbanded thrips prefer young foliage,
which may lead to leaf drop, at times
totally denuding trees.
Damage caused blossom thrips by
ovipositing in the panicle and feeding on
the floral nectaries and anthers, which
may result in premature loss of pollen.
These thrips appear commonly during
the dry season from January to April.

THRIPS
Need based application of methyl parathion
(0.025%),
monocrotophos
(0.025%),
fenitrothion (0.25%) or carbaryl (0.1%) with
higher volume sprayer at 10ml l/tree.
First spray at early stage of panicle formation
if hopper population is more than 5-10 panicle
Second spray at full length stage of panicle,
and the third spray after fruit setting
successfully controls thrips.

Mealybugs
Mealybugs move about and are usually found
on the undersides of leaves and on stems of
plants and trees. They leave a whitish flocculate
behind.
It is another major pest of mango in India and
widely distributed along the Indo-gangatic plain.
The most common mealy bug is Drasicha
mangiferae , which causes severe damage to
mango crop through out the country.

Mealybugs
Adults and nymphs both sucks the plant
sap and reduce the plant growth, destroy
inflorescence and causes fruit drop. Mealy
bug excretes honey dew, a sticky
substance, which facilitates the
development of sooty mould fungi
( Maliola mangiferae & Capnodium
mangiferae ).

Mealybugs
The female insect crawls down in the
month of April/May to lay the eggs in soil.
The eggs hatch in the following month of
November/December and crawls up the
tree

Mealybugs
Flooding the orchard in the month of
October and deep ploughing in November,
fastening of alkathene 25 cm wide sheet
(400 gauge) afterwards mud plastering of
trunk at 30 cm above the ground in the
middle of December, loosening of soil
around the tree trunk and mixing of
Chlorpyriphos dust (1.5%) at 250 g per
tree helps in reduction of mealy bug
population.

Mealybugs
This dust can also be applied below the
alkathene band on tree trunk and soil.
Spraying of Propanophos (0.05%) or
Imidachlopid (0.005%) for control of
nymphs already made the way up to tree.
The integrated approach (IPM) of above
has been found effective in management
of mealy bug

Mealybugs
Raking of the soil around the base of the
tree which has been infested, so that the
egg-masses exposed and application of
chlorpyriphos 0.05% in the same area
when hatching begins or is expected, so
that the just-hatched nymphs may be
poisoned (January/February).
If nymphs ascend ascended on tree spray
Monocrotophos or Dimethoate (0.04%)
Spray of either of these insecticides at
bud burst stage reduces gall midge
damage.

Mealybugs
Spraying of neem products along with soil
application of Beauveria bassiana spores
will be further useful in population
reduction of this pest. Apart from B.
bassiana , coccinellid beetles
(predator), Minochillus
sexmaculatus , Rodolia
fumida andSuminus renardi are natural
bio-control agents of this pest.

MANGO HOPPER
Need based application of methyl
parathion
(0.025%),
monocrotophos
(0.025%), fenitrothion (0.25%) or carbaryl
(0.1%) with higher volume sprayer at 10
l/tree significantly reduced the hopper
population
First spray at early stage of panicle
formation if hopper population is more
than 5-10 panicle
Second spray at full length stage of
panicle, and the third spray after fruit
setting successfully controls mango
hoppers.

FRUIT FLIES
To control adult fruit flies during severe
infestation placing poison bait viz.,
protein hydrolysate + malathion 50 ml
+ 200 ml molasses in 2 litres of water
be sprayed adding an additional 18
liters of water to bait poison,
commencing at pre-oviposition period
and repeat at 15 days interval.
Three weeks before harvesting, spray
Deltamethrin 2.8 EC @ 0.5 ml/l +
Azadiractin (3000 ppm) or 2 ml/liter.

FRUIT FLIES
Two to three sprays at fortnightly
intervals commencing from last week
of July with monocrotophos (0.05%)
or quinalphos (0.05%) controls leaf
webber.
This spay will also take care of mango
psylla.
Spray monocrotophos 2 times (0.04%)
or dimethoate (0.06%) at 21 days
interval for the control of scale insect.
Spray
quinalphos
(0.05%)
or
monocrotophos (0.5%) from the
emergence of new flush for the control
of leaf miner.

STEM BORER, BARK EATING CATERPILLAR AND SHOOT BORER

For the control of stem borer and bark eating

caterpillar, clean hole and insert cotton wool
soaked in emulsion of monocrotophos
(0.05%) or kerosene or petrol in each hole
and plug them with mud or drench stem
thoroughly with monocrotophos (0.05%), if
the incidence is high.
Spray of monocrotophos or quinalphos
(0.05%) at fortnightly interval from the
commencement of new flush. controls shoot
borer

STONE WEEVIL AND FRUIT BORER

Spray dimethoate (0.1%) twice at 15 days
interval when fruits are of marble size.
Spray main trunk, primary branches and junction
of branches prior to flowing (November,
December) with monocrotophos @ 2.5 ml to
control stone weevils hiding in the bark.
Spray acephate 75 SP @ 1.5 g/l when fruits are
of lime size followed by deltamethrin 2.8 EC @
1ml/l after two or three weeks.
Spray monocrotophos 1.5 ml/l at marble size
onwards for the control of fruit borer, and repeat
with deltamethrin 28 EC @ 1ml/l after two
weeks in case of heavy infection.

Termite damage

During dry periods, termites may damage

underground parts of the tree
To overcome this problem make 2-3 feet
wide and 1 feet deep basins around the
tree and apply 20 ml of BIFLEX TM in one
liter of water. Also paint a band of BIFLEX
TM on the base of the stem up to about 2
feet height

MANGOO TREE - BASEN

Basin

MANGO TREE TRUNK BAND

SUMMARY
Monocrotophos, malathion, dimethoate, quinalphos,
deltamethrin, acephate, imidacloprid, and lambda
cyhalothrin are some of the commonly used insecticides
used for the management of insect pests in mango.
Insecticide spray should be avoided fortnight before fruit
harvest.
Repeated application of same insecticide should be
avoided.
Use recommended dose of insecticide for effective
management of the target pest.

THANK YOU