Pod borer in Chickpea
POD BORER, Helicoverpa armigera Hubn. (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae) is a notorious pest causing heavy damage to the crop. Yield loss in chickpea due to pod borer is estimated at 21 per cent. The pest is reported to cause about 50 to 60 per cent damage to the chickpea pods. Despite chickpea, it attacks pigeonpea, sunflower, cotton, safflower, chilli, sorghum, groundnut, tomato and other crops. It is a devastating pest of pulses and oilseeds.
The infestation starts on chickpea usually a fortnight after germination and becomes serious just after the initiation of flower bud coupled with cloudy and humid weather.
Medium sized light brown moths measuring about 40 mm across the wings have a dark speck and dark area on the forewings. Hindwings are light in colour with a dark patch at the outer end.
Females lay several small white eggs singly. Upon hatching in 3-4 days the caterpillars feed on the leaves for a short time and subsequently attack the pods.
Full-grown caterpillars are about 34 mm long, greenish to brownish in colour with scattered short white hair and bury themselves in the soil to make an earthen cell inside which they pupate. The pupal period lasts up to 12 days and they hibernate during January-February. The moth emerges during the second week of March and lays eggs on the leaves. The life cycle is completed in about 30-45 days. The pest completes eight generations in a year.
The borer can be managed by:
Summer ploughing to expose the hidden stages of the pest to natural predation. Use of resistant varieties like ICCV-2. Birds perches placed just above the crop canopy will also help to reduce the pest by birds predation. Female moths can be deterred from oviposition by spraying of 5% neem seed kernel suspension.
Applying HaNPV at the rate of 100 LE per acre along with 0.5% Jaggery and 0.1% boric acid at egg hatch stage and repetition at 15-20 days. Use of chemicals should comprise of 4 g carbaryl 50% W.S. or 2 ml chlorpyriphos, or 2 ml quanalphos or 2 ml Endosulfan in 1 litre of water. About 500 litre solution is required per ha. Hand picking of grown up larvae.
Biocontrol agents such as Trichogramma (Egg parasitoid); Apanteles spp and Chelonus narayani (Larval parasitoids) should be encouraged.
D.N. Kambrekar, K.A. Kulkarni and K.P. Gundannavar
Department of Agri Entomology
UAS, Dharwad, Karnataka
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