Shoot and fruit borer (Leucinodes orbonalis)
This is a very serious pest & results in more than 60 percent crop loss. Holes will be seen on the fruit & stem & plugged with its excreta. Even though the incidence of the pest is throughout the year, its more often seen in the monsoons. Heavy leaves drooping is also caused due to boring the stem.
Management : at every harvest, the damaged fruits must be separated from other fruits & destroyed. Also just before fruit setting, the drooping leaves must be pruned. Spraying the crops with cypermethrin @ 2 ml per litre is very effective. It is recommended to use a combination of cypermethrin with profenophos , as foliar spray @ 2 ml per litre & sprayed at an interval of every 25 to 20 days after flowering
Also certain resistant varieties like Punjab Barsati can be used.
Horn Moth (Acherontia styx)
Stout & large caterpillars with intricate designs with lateral yellow bands feed on the leaves gregariously. Even though it’s seen in patches, its very destructive.
Management: best method is to collect & destroy the caterpillars manually, if the incidence is less or the crop are is less. However if it’s a serious problem, spraying with chloropyriphos @ 3 ml per litre for the first week of attack , followed by 2 ml per litre the following week is very effective. Chloropyriphos has very high mammalian toxicity & therefore it must not be indiscriminately used.
Photos and content by Pritham 'Heavy metal farmer' denzil dsouza
We have some problems of insects and arvae. We could not able to identyfy he same. I am sending the photographs by mail. Please send us sugestions for controlling the same.
ReplyDeleteThanking you,
Kusuma Hegde
I am back - there are several spiderwebs near the various vines. Are they usually harmless? They seem to have caught couple of whiteflies!
ReplyDeleteAlso, what method do you follow for preparing garlic sprays?
Many thanks
AG
spiders are the best.... did u know, even praying mantis eggs are commercially sold in certain gardens and nurseries as they are excellent in keeping pests away.
ReplyDeletesince i had used garlic sprays only for my hydroponic garden, i used very little quantity. i used all the rejected, rotten garlic, smashed them using grinding stone & the paste, i added water and sprayed. since its all organic, there are no harmful effects.
one garlic could be smashed to make one litre spray concentrate.
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI purchased 100% organic neem oil from ebay. My questions are:
1. Since this is concentrated, how often should I spray? Btw, the pesky whiteflies are nearly eliminated.
2. I have read online that neem spray is good for improving the plant yield - is this true because it contains the pests or is a good fertiliser as well?
Thanks a lot (and enjoy your weekend)
AG
there should be the concentration of neem mentioned in the bottle,,, however, u should spray neem mostly need based. also blanket sprays are not really required, but u can spray twice weekly, later once weekly
ReplyDeleteand neem has both insecticide properties and also backs up as a good fertilizer.
and since u are spraying, the neem is almost immediately absorbed by the plant, thru the leaves.
so its a total win win situation...
cheers
Hello,
ReplyDeleteI saw a stick worm on the ridge gourd plant today - its now in the rubbish pile. How harmful are they?
Thanks
AG
why is the ridge gourd plant a rubbish pile??? stick worm??? am not sure... can u send me the pic of possible...all worms are bad.. the ones on ridge gourd have colored stripes... and they are very dangerous, coz they eat up the leaves very fast... i dont think neem sprays work against them, coz some say, they dont have taste buds... but let me know what u are talking about... the worm i mean
ReplyDeleteI should have taken a pic before I trashed it. Anyway, this link is very close to the one that I had, only difference being it was resting between two vines & was completely brown w/o any stripes!
ReplyDeletehttp://media.photobucket.com/image/stick%20worm/tagorean/CS/2009/May/P5015956a.jpg
Thanks
AG
ha ha the pic u sent me looks like its doing yoga or something... are u sure it was this very type o worm?? coz to be honest i have not seen this type attacking the ridge gourd plants... these are generally found on shrubs n small trees, mostly in tropical forests...
ReplyDeletein any case, now what u should do is, look out for eggs... it will be laid on the under side of the leaves... a daunting task, as ridge gourd vines grow like crazy... u could encourage natural predators like wasps, spiders and praying mantis... but i dont think u will do that....he he
I am sure it is this because the worm was stretching between two vines. I shall ask my better half to inspect under the leaves as bugs scare the living daylights out of me!
ReplyDeleteWell, I have been leaving the spiders alone after your post. Infact today, I cut off a damaged leaf (ridge gourd) that had a spider on it - I bravely plonked it back on the plant!!
Thanks
AG
yes good thing.. spiders, ants , wasps, praying mantis are the best when it comes to first line of defence ...
ReplyDeletebut here are a few problems..
spiders are creepy.. and not many people are fans... i have a huge spider in my room, and also a huge tree climbing frog... ha ha.. so much for being weird
ants are again the best, but like i told u they bring along aphids....
wasps.. can sting humans & rarely its also resulted in fatalities if one is allergic
preying mantis, cuccoons are now commercially available at the horti shops... but i think its pretty expensive, once it has eaten all ur pests, they move away looking for food, they dont attack crops, only pests and so its ideal for a garden that is pest infested..cheers
Useful
ReplyDelete