INSECT PESTS OF Wheat

R. Regmi Assistant Professor

Department of entomology

INSECTS PESTS OF WHEATDifferent insect pests attacking wheat are as follows:• Pink borer, Sesamia inferens (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

• Wireworm, Agriotes sp (Coleoptera: Elateridae)

• Armyworm, Mythimna separata (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

• Aphids, Rhopalosiphum maidids, Schizaphis graminnum, and Microsiphium acanae (Homoptera: Aphididae)

• Grasshopper, Atractomorpha crenulata, Oxya adanata, chrotogonus sp( Orthoptera: Acrididae)

• Termite, Microtermes obsi, Odontotermes obsesus (Isoptera: Termitidae)

Aphid Armyworm Grasshopper

Pink borer Termite

Pink borer, Sesamia inferens (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

• The pink borer is polyphagous insect.

• It feeds on wheat, finger millet, rice, sugarcane, maize, sorghoum.

• The damage is caused by the caterpillars which are pinkish brown and have a smooth cylindrical body, measuring about 25mm.

• The moth are straw coloured and have stout body.

Life cycle: • The pest breeds actively from March- April to November on rice and

then migrates to the wheat crop.

• The moth are nocturnal and lay eggs on leaves or on the ground.

• The egg hatch in 6-8 days and young caterpillar bore into the epidermal layers of the leaf sheath.

• Later on, they bore into the stem as a result of which the growing shoot dries up producing dead hearts.

• When the attacked plants die, the larva move onto adjoining plants.

• They are full fed in 3-4 weeks and pupate inside the stem or in between the stem and leaves.

• The pupal stage last about a week and the life cycle is completed in 6-7 weeks.

• There are 4-5 generations of the pest in a year.

Damage:

• The attacked young plants shows dead hearts and are killed together.

• The older plants are not killed, but they produce a few grains only.

Management: • The removal and destruction of stubble at the time of

the first ploughing after harvesting the crop.

• Ploughing and flooding the field is also effective in killing the larvae

• Clipping of tips of seedling before transplanting can reduce the carryover of eggs to the field

• Use trichocard with 50,000-1,00,000 trichogramma per ha

• The field showing more than 5% dead hearts should be sprayed with 875 ml triazophos 40 EC or 2.5 liters of chlorpyriphos 20EC in 250 liter of water per ha.

Thank you