Complete control of mango mealy bug using funnel type slippery trap.
Ashfaq M., Khan R. A., Khan M. A., Fahad Rasheed, Shahid Hafeez
Author Affiliation: Department of Agri Entomology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan.
Pakistan Entomologist 27 : 45-48
Abstract : Mango, the topmost fruits of the Indian subcontinent, is severely damaged by the giant mango mealy bug (Drosicha stebbingi). This insect pest is hardly controlled by pesticides due to its white waxy body coating. The life cycle of D. stebbingi starts with egg laying in loose soil around infected trees. The nymphs emerge with the rise in temperature during January and travel up the trees via stem to feed on cell sap, adjacent to the fruiting parts. Therefore, heavy immature fruit falling occurs. During May, the flying males emerge to mate with the flightless mature females while crawling down to the ground for egg laying. Since D. stebbingi are hard to control by pesticides therefore two non-chemical techniques have been tried and compared for efficacy. The new technique, funnel type slippery trap (FTST), and the old technique, slippery band (SB), were tested and evaluated for four years (2001-04). On the basic pest control efficacy, FTST was declared to be the complete two way control of the pest. The funnel of the new trap was observed to arrest the upward crossing of the nymphs and successfully entrap the egg-carrying females while coming down the tree for egg laying. Being environment friendly, this technique is highly safe and provide effective control of this prolific pest. The trap is cheap to prepare and easy to install on tree stem.