Insect Pest Problems Research Articles

Economic Assessment of Tuta Absoluta Effect on Tomato Production in East Nawalparasi

Tuta absoluta is an invasive and highly destructive pest of tomato plants, originated in South America, specifically Peru. It has the capability to infest and cause extensive damage to large areas of cultivated tomato fields, as well as other plants in the solanaceous family. This study aims to assess the economic analysis of effect of Tuta absoluta on tomato production. The study was carried out in Kawasoti municipality, Madhyabindu municipality, and Hupsekot rural municipality of East Nawalparasi district of Nepal. They were selected purposively as research sites as the problem of Tuta was more prominent in these localities. Ninety households that were involved in tomato cultivation were selected through the simple random sampling method for the survey. The primary data were collected through individual respondents through pre-tested questionnaires, face-to-face questionnaire surveys, key informant interviews, and focus group discussions. Descriptive statistics, scaling & indexing were used to analyze the data. Most of the farmers cultivated tomatoes in open fields (68.8%) only whereas 26.6% of farmers cultivated in plastic tunnels. The insect pest problem was ranked as the first major problem of farmers. The study revealed that all of the farmers had problems with Tuta in their tomato fields. The minimum yield loss due to Tuta absoluta was 10% and the maximum loss was 80%. The total variable cost (T.V.C) for tomato production in one kathha is NRs. 11210. Average production of tomato per kathha was 550 kg. Gross return and gross margin from tomato cultivation in 1 kathhaare NRs. 16500 with Benefit Cost Ratio (BCR) of 1.64. The average loss of tomatoes per kathha was 72 kg. Only 20 % of the farmers had knowledge regarding the life cycle Tuta absoluta. The most affected stage by Tuta was the flowering stage. This study suggests that effective management of Tuta absoluta can substantially improve tomato production.

ROLE OF SOIL MICROBES IN MODULATION OF PLANT DEFENSE AGAINST INSECT PESTS: A REVIEW

A vital role of soil microbes is to keep plants healthy and productive. There is growing interest in the role of soil microbes in plant defense against insect pests. Soil microbes can influence plant resistance to insect pests by interacting with plants. They produce compounds that can degrade insect toxins and make plants resistant to pests. By understanding the complex interactions between soil microbes, plants, and insect pests, strategies could be developed to enhance crop resilience and reduce reliance on chemical inputs. They can improve plant defense by generating secondary metabolites, breaking down insecticidal substances, and promoting systemic resistance. Using soil microbes for pest management has significant implications for the environment, human health, and the economy. However, further research is needed to fully understand the interactions between soil microbes and plants and develop standardized protocols for their use in pest management. Overall, the use of soil microbes has the potential to provide a sustainable and eco-friendly solution to the problem of insect pests in agriculture. This review discusses this interaction, its implications in insect pest management, and the challenges of their use in plant defense.. KEYWORDS :Insect pests, Microbial interaction, Pest management, Plant defense, Soil microbes

Incidence of the tussock moth attack: Issue, crop damages and management strategies to support sustainable oil palm plantation

The problem of insect pests in the palm oil industry has shown a considerable shift during the second decade of the twenty-first century due to ecosystem and technological changes. The interaction between palm oil as a host plant and the behaviour of insect pests undergoes an adaptation process. Defoliating insects of oil palm in Central Kalimantan, at certain times, experience explosions, such as the tussock moth species Dasychira inclusa (Walker, 1856) and Calliteara horsfieldii (Saunders, 1851). Several factors led to the tussock moth explosion, including environmental factors, human resources, and management strategies. The percentage of crop damage caused by the tussock moths from mild, moderate, severe to very severe categories was 43.48%, 15.57%, 21.74% and 10.87%. The tussock moth outbreak is giving rise to restoration efforts to keep the ecosystem balance in the landscape back to normal. Efforts to maintain ecosystem balance through regular and accurate monitoring, introducing and withdrawing beneficial insects, and planting proper plant vegetation. This action is one of the keys to dealing with small pest outbreaks or significant pests. Ultimately, a diversified ecosystem provides more crop protection opportunities.

Crop insect pest detection based on dilated multi-scale attention U-Net

BackgroundCrop pests seriously affect the yield and quality of crops. Accurately and rapidly detecting and segmenting insect pests in crop leaves is a premise for effectively controlling insect pests.MethodsAiming at the detection problem of irregular multi-scale insect pests in the field, a dilated multi-scale attention U-Net (DMSAU-Net) model is constructed for crop insect pest detection. In its encoder, dilated Inception is designed to replace the convolution layer in U-Net to extract the multi-scale features of insect pest images. An attention module is added to its decoder to focus on the edge of the insect pest image.ResultsThe experiments on the crop insect pest image IP102 dataset are implemented, and achieved the detection accuracy of 92.16% and IoU of 91.2%, which is 3.3% and 1.5% higher than that of MSR-RCNN, respectively.ConclusionThe results indicate that the proposed method is effective as a new insect pest detection method. The dilated Inception can improve the accuracy of the model, and the attention module can reduce the noise generated by upsampling and accelerate model convergence. It can be concluded that the proposed method can be applied to practical crop insect pest monitoring system.

Incidence and Population Dynamics of Various Associated Insect-pests of Late Direct Sown Paddy, Oryza sativa L. at Gajapati, Odisha

Background: Rice is the most important staple food of the world. Rice production is now-a-days reduced due to insect pest attacking to the crop in various growing stages. There are more than 1400 pest species, which are cause great menace to the rice cultivation. Incidences and abundance of pests in rice is growing day by day due to climatic change and excess use of chemical pesticides. In late direct sown paddy is also facing the insect pest problems in different growing stages. The study aimed to layout the different pest’s incidence and population dynamics as well, on various stages of direct sown paddy. The knowledge of incidence timing for various pests can be further utilized for the suitable management. Methods: The present study has been conducted during the late Kharif seasons of 2021-22 for 11 most widely grown paddy cultivars of farmers field around the locality of MS Swaminathan School of Agriculture, Centurion University of Technology and Management, Paralakhemundi, Odisha. The surveyed cultivars were Anjali, Arize 8433, BAM-6, Bhuban, Chandra, CR Dhan 100, Varsha Dhan, CR Dhan 306, Sumit, Luna Sankhi and Vandana, respectively. These cultivars were surveyed for the abundance of various associated insect-pests at two different crop growth stages. Result: The results revealed that the incidence of various pests namely Scirpophaga incertulus, Orseolia oryzae, Cnaphalocrocis medinalis, Parapoynx stagnalis, Dicladispa armigera, Leptocorisa acuta, Grasshoppers, Nezara virdula, Nephotettix virescens, Melantis leda and Mythimna separate was found to be significant for both the growth stages. The maximum population on late direct sown rice was found to be of Scirpophaga incertulus (3.67) and Orseolia oryzae (2.67) at the vegetative stage of rice while pests such as Cnaphalocrocis medinalis (6.34), Leptocorisa acuta (7.34) and Mythimna separate (5.67) were recorded maximum during the milking stage of rice.

A Study on Adoption of IPM (Integrated Pest Management) in Cabbage and Cauliflower in Bishnupur District, Manipur

An insect pest problem is one of the important limiting factors in the profitable production of agricultural crops. In India, including Manipur, insect pest control is mainly base on the use of insecticidal chemicals because of their quicker action, easy availability and giving spectacular result within a short time, so, the concept of Integrated Pest Management emerged.Therefore the present study entitled "A Study on Adoption of IPM in Cabbage and Cauliflower at Bishnupur District of Manipur” was designed with the following objectives To study socio-psychological, extension-communication and agro-economic characteristics of the respondents.

Prospects and Challenges of Emerging Insect Pest Problems vis-à-vis Climate Change

Prospects and Challenges of Emerging Insect Pest Problems vis-à-vis Climate Change

Yield and economics of bean (Phaseolus vulgaris L.) as affected by blended NPS fertilizer rates and inter row spacing at maenitgoldia, Southwest Ethiopia

The common bean is one of Ethiopia's most economically important legumes. However, its national average yield remains lower than the potential yield obtained at research stations. This is because of low soil fertility, inappropriate plant spacing, disease and insect pest problems. As a result, this experiment was carried out during the 2021 to investigate the impact of blended NPS fertilizer rates and spacing between crops on the growth and yield of common bean and to analyze the economic feasibility of blended NPS rates with common bean spacing. A four-factorial combination of mixed NPS levels (0, 50, 100 and 150 kg ha-1) and three row spacing (30, 40, and 50 cm) were used in a three-replicate randomized complete block design. After collecting plant phenology, growth, yield, and yield attribute parameters were analyzed by using SAS version 9.3 software. The results revealed significant differences for the main effect of the NPS blended fertilizer, row spacings, and their interaction on most of the measured phenological, growth, yield, and yield attributes of the common bean, however, neither the main effect nor the interaction effects affected seedling emergence. The combined use of 150 kg of mixed NPS ha-1 with a row spacing of 40 cm resulted in a higher grain yield (2.5 t ha-1) and maximum net benefit (41775 ETB ha-1). Hence, it can be established that earlier mentioned NPS fertilizer rate and row spacing isa better choice for farmers in the area and similar agro-ecologies in order to achieve the highest possible grain yield and a higher net return.

Knowledge and Impression of Fenugreek Growers about Insecticide Usage in District of Western Maharashtra, India

A survey was done in the Western Maharashtra districts, Ahmednagar, Pune, and Nashik to investigate the pesticide usage pattern in fenugreek from 2019 to 2020. The total 150 fenugreek growers were chosen at random and interviewed out of that, fifty growers were from each selected district. The collected data was analysis with the help of excel to calculate per cent respondents. In accordance with the survey, the majority of fenugreek growers (52.00%) used novel insecticides, followed by conventional (39.25%) and biopesticides (8.75%). In terms of knowledge and farmer perception, 63.33% of farmers were conscious of the seriousness of insect pest problems in fenugreek, well almost 60.66% were aware of natural enemies, 66.66% were aware of the benefits of employing biopesticides, and only 28.00% of fenugreek growers were aware of the harmful effects of insecticides and failed to take any precautions to avoid harmful effects. The majority of farmers were unaware of the acceptable waiting period for harvesting fenugreek after application of insecticides.

Recent Events Of Invasive And Migratory Pests And Lessons Learnt

In the increasing globalisation era, movement of goods and planting materials between countries being carried out at ease, are potential factors of introduction of invasive alien insects, diseases, and weeds in India. Infested fruits carried by international travellers, cargo / sea shipments of wood logs, food trade, and accidental introduction through air travels were the potential ways of entry of invasive alien insects into any country. The entry of alien invasive pest causes huge economic damage by way of direct crop loss. In addition, the panic situation to save the crops results in indiscriminate use of chemical insecticides that is harmful to applicator, farmer and consumer. Frequent application of insecticides leads to reduction in natural enemies and pollinators there by having an adverse impact on the ecosystem. The present paper critically reviewes the existing plant quarantine regulations in India, recent invasive and migratory insect pest problems and way forwards to safeguard Indian Agriculture.

ADOPTION OF RECOMMENDED PRODUCTION PRACTICES IN RICE PRODUCTION IN FARMERS' FIELDS AT JANAKPURDHAM SUB-METROPOLITAN OF NEPAL

Rice yield has been substantially facing a negative yield slope since times. Higher production of rice can be achieved by promoting the adoption of recommended production practices among rice-growing farmers in Nepal. A study was carried out in the summer (May/June) of 2019 to assess the adoption status of recommended production practices among rice-growing farmers of Janakpurdham-17 & 18 (Only two local bodies of Janakpurdham sub-metropolitan city under thematic working areas of Rice Zone, Prime Minister Agriculture Modernization Project of Nepal). The results analysis showed that most respondents were male (80%). Many respondents were in the adult age group (44%) followed by senior citizens (34%). Most of them were illiterate (68%), had a medium household size, and had a low level of income. The average landholding size was found to be 0.9546 ha. Many of the respondents were not affiliated with the farmers’ groups and did not receive any sort of training. Most respondents were found to be adopters of recommended rice production practices except for the recommended age of seedlings. The Chi-square test showed that farmer group membership and training had a positive and significant relationship with the adoption of recommended production practices. Also, the income of farmers was positively correlated with the adoption of irrigation sources. Major sources of knowledge about rice cultivation among the respondents were found to be neighbors, relatives, fairs and exhibitions, and non-governmental organizations. Lack of better irrigation facilities, poor seed quality, lack of agriculture loans, and disease, and insect pest problems were the major constraints faced by the farmers in rice cultivation.

Insect-pest and diseases disturbances associated with an endangered plant Commiphora wightii (Arnott) Bhandari in Western Region, India

As the plant holds important medicinal value and is endangered due to poor tapping methods, over tapping and lack of insect pest and disease management strategy, present review tried to enlist insect pest and disease problems associated with the C. wightii to attract the researchers to look into its integrated management for saving this important asset of Rajasthan and Gujarat.

Increasing crop field size does not consistently exacerbate insect pest problems

Increasing diversity on farms can enhance many key ecosystem services to and from agriculture, and natural control of arthropod pests is often presumed to be among them. The expectation that increasing the size of monocultural crop plantings exacerbates the impact of pests is common throughout the agroecological literature. However, the theoretical basis for this expectation is uncertain; mechanistic mathematical models suggest instead that increasing field size can have positive, negative, neutral, or even nonlinear effects on arthropod pest densities. Here, we report a broad survey of crop field-size effects: across 14 pest species, 5 crops, and 20,000 field years of observations, we quantify the impact of field size on pest densities, pesticide applications, and crop yield. We find no evidence that larger fields cause consistently worse pest impacts. The most common outcome (9 of 14 species) was for pest severity to be independent of field size; larger fields resulted in less severe pest problems for four species, and only one species exhibited the expected trend of larger fields worsening pest severity. Importantly, pest responses to field size strongly correlated with their responses to the fraction of the surrounding landscape planted to the focal crop, suggesting that shared ecological processes produce parallel responses to crop simplification across spatial scales. We conclude that the idea that larger field sizes consistently disrupt natural pest control services is without foundation in either the theoretical or empirical record.

Impact of Cover Crop Planting and Termination Dates on Arthropod Activity in the Following Corn.

Relative to fallow-cash crop rotations, the addition of a cover crop can contribute to greater plant diversity and has the potential to conserve predatory arthropods. The transition of arthropods from a cover crop to a subsequent cash crop depends on several factors, such as cover crop biomass production and weather conditions. Information about the effect of cover crop planting and termination dates on arthropods in a subsequent corn system is limited. A two-year field study was conducted in Nebraska in 2018/2019 and 2019/2020 to evaluate the impact of cover crop planting and termination dates as a source for arthropods in the subsequent corn. A total of 38,074 and 50,626 arthropods were collected in the first and second year, respectively. In both years, adding a grass cover crop increased predatory arthropods but reduced yield in follow corn crop. Of the arthropods collected, Carabidae and Araneae had greater activity with cover crop biomass increments, whereas Collembola and Acari activity only increased in treatments with little or no cover crop biomass. Insect pest pressure was not significant in any treatment for either year. A cover crop planted in mid- or late-September and terminated at corn planting was identified as the best management strategy to maximize cover crop biomass, increase predator activity, and modify predator-prey dynamics. The results of this study provide growers with a cover crop management strategy to maximize cover crop biomass, beneficial arthropod activity, and potentially minimize insect pest problems; however, corn Zea Mays (L.) grain yield was reduced as cover crop biomass increased.

Economic analysis of tomato (Solanum lycopersicum) cultivar grown in different soilless substrates under protected conditions

Protected cultivation has great potential in northern India, where the extreme temperature, unpredictable heavy rainfall and problematic soil conditions have affected the year around availability of tomato crop in the different agro climatic zones of the region. Therefore, this study was conducted under protected structure at Hi-Tech Vegetable Centre, Bir Charik, Moga, Punjab during two seasons in 2018 and 2019 with an objective to standardize the best economical growing media and tomato cultivars in Punjab. The experiment was conducted with 6 promising tomato cultivars (viz., Heemshikhar, 2853, NS-4266, Punjab Gaurav, Punjab Sartaj, Punjab Swarna) under poly-house structure. Six different media substrate treatments [Soil as control, Cocopeat only, Cocopeat+ Vermicompost in ratio {(2:1, v/v) & (3:1, v/v)}, Cocopeat + Vermiculite + Perlite in ratio (3:1:1, v/v) and (6:1:1, v/v)] were used. The soil is the most economical growing media for growing all the cultivars, but in the case of problematic soils (saline soils/soil borne insect-pest problems), the soilless substrate can be a better option for commercial cultivation of tomato. The maximum B:C ratio (0.80) was recorded in cultivar (P3) which was statistically significant than check cultivar (P1). The maximum B:C ratio (0.93) was recorded under Soil only (M1), followed by (0.74) under media combination (M3) cocopeat + vermicompost (2:1, v/v) which was statistically significant than all other treatments. The economic yield of NS-4266 was (608 q/acre) higher in the soilless growing media (M3) with the combination of Cocopeat + Vermicompost (2:1, v/v) for tomato cultivation in Punjab, whereas the soilless growing media Cocopeat + Vermiculite + Perlite in the ratio (6:1:1, v/v) can be exploited for further research experiments.

The Case for Sanitation as an Insect Pest Management Strategy in Greenhouse Production Systems

Abstract Protection of greenhouse-grown horticultural crops, including ornamentals and vegetables, from damage caused by insect pests involves implementing strategies such as insecticidal and/or biological control. However, cultural control may also mitigate plant damage caused by insect pests, as well as plant diseases including fungi and bacteria. An important cultural control is sanitation. Herein, we review the use and potential impact of sanitation practices as a part of an integrated pest management program for greenhouse production. These include removing weeds from inside and around the greenhouse perimeter, disposing of plant and growing medium debris from inside the greenhouse, and managing algae within the greenhouse. Weeds serve as alternate hosts for insects, such as aphids (Aphididae), whiteflies (Aleyrodidae), and thrips (Thripidae), that can spread plant viruses among greenhouse-grown horticultural crops. Sanitation practices that may reduce problems with weeds include installing geotextile fabric barriers underneath benches and on walkways, hand removal, mowing around greenhouse perimeters, and/or applying herbicides. Plant and growing medium debris serve as sources of insect pests, such as whiteflies, thrips, and fungus gnats (Sciaridae). Therefore, removal of plant and growing medium debris from within greenhouses and/or placement into refuse containers with tight-sealing lids before disposal may reduce problems with insect pests. Algae provides a habitat for fungus gnats and shore flies (Ephydridae) to breed. Overwatering and overfertilizing plants contributes to algae growth. Applying disinfectants or algaecides may mitigate problems with algae accumulating in greenhouses. In addition to reducing insect pest problems, sanitation practices may help reduce inputs from insecticide applications.

Integrated Pest Management System of Enset (Ensete ventricosum (Welw.) Cheesman) in Ethiopia:A Review

Enset is an important root crop widely used as a staple food for millions of peoples in Ethiopia. Despite its dominant production in southern and western parts of the county, diverse diseases and insect pests are challenging its production and productivity in Ethiopia. Hence this short review was aimed to discuss the IPM system developed to control the potential Enset pests in different production areas of Ethiopia. Hence, enset is a root crop that is highly susceptible to different microbial diseases and insect pest problems. Bacterial wilt is a major devastating disease causing important economic losses and can lead up to killing the whole plant parts that are commonly observed around enset growing areas of the country. Enset root mealy bag is also an important insect pest found on the upper half of the corm and root parts of enset which can retard the plant growth and causes to dry outer parts of the leaf that might be leading to causes the plant death. However, most of the growers are practicing different controlling mechanisms against both the potential diseases and insect pests of the crop. Due to the chemical control methods needs the cost of purchase and usage on root mealybug has usually not effective, the growers are wide uses an integrated method of pest management systems with their indigenous knowledge to prevent the disease and insect introduction to the enset field and to control already infected plants. Hence, using host plant resistant method, cultural controlling method, biological controlling method, and finally uses of chemical controlling option are the IPM component practiced by enset growers in Ethiopia. The IPM system is not only an optional method but necessitates the management systems against the potential pest due to environmentally friend, cost-effective, and alternative options to various behaviors of pests. However, breeding of pest-resistant Enset genotype and adoption of successful IPM controlling methods to all enset growing areas need further work to alleviate the encountered challenges on enset growing sector in Ethiopia Keywords: Bacterial Wilt Disease; Biological Control Method; Chemical Control Method; Cultural Control Methods; Enset Root Mealy Bug; Pest Infestation DOI: 10.7176/JNSR/13-9-03 Publication date: May 31 st 2022

Insect pest scenario in Uttarakhand Himalayas, India, under changing climatic conditions.

The Himalayan mountains are early indicators of climate change, wherein slight changes in climate can lead to a drastic variation in faunal diversity, distribution, invasion of fauna into higher altitudes, rapid population growth, shortening of life cycle and increased number of overwintering species. The insects best represent the faunal diversity. In recent years, due to variation in pattern of rainfall and temperature regimes, several insect pests have moved northwards and are posing great threat to hill agriculture. Few among them are greenhouse whiteflies, thrips and mites in protected cultivation system; blister beetles on flowers of cereals, pulses and oilseeds; invasive insect pests like fall armyworm of maize and tomato pin worm and sporadic pests like grasshoppers that are reaching a status of major key pest in various crops. Keeping in mind the phenomenon of climate change and associated changes in pest population, the present article focuses on emerging insect pest problems in cereals, millets, pulses, oilseeds and vegetables of Indian Himalayas, along with their changing population density with respect to different climatic parameters, the per cent increase in the pest damage over the years and their potential of gaining the status of major pests in near future and causing huge economic losses to hill agriculture.

Integrated Major Pest Management Systems of Enset (<i>Ensete ventricosum </i>(Welw.) Cheesman) in Ethiopia

Enset is an important root crop widely used as a staple food for millions of people in Ethiopia. Despite to enset is dominantly produced in southern and south western parts of the county, diverse diseases and insect pests are challenging its growth and productivity at these production areas. Hence, this review was aimed to discuss the integrated pest management (IPM) system that used to control the major enset pests (disease and inset) in different production areas of Ethiopia. Enset is a root crop that is highly susceptible to different kinds of diseases and insect pest problems. Enset Bacterial wilt (EBW) is a major devastating disease causing important economic losses and can lead up to killing the whole plant parts that are commonly observed around enset growing areas of the country. Enset root mealybug is also a major insect found on the upper half of the corm and root parts of enset which can retard the plant growth and causes to dry the outer parts of the leaf that might finally leading to the plant death. However, most of enset growers are practicing different controlling mechanisms against these major enset diseases and insect pests around the production areas. Due to the chemical controlling method needs the cost of purchase and usage on root mealybug has usually not effective, the producers are widely uses an IPM systems incorporating with their indigenous knowledges to prevent the major disease and insect introduction to the enset field and to control an already infected plant. Hence, the enset producers mainly uses the IPM components like the host plant resistance, the cultural controlling system, the biological controlling system, and the chemical controlling system as the last option to manage their enset farms in Ethiopia. These IPM components are not only an optional pest controlling methods but necessitate its practice against the major pest problems due to environmentally friend, cost-effective, and alternative options to various behaviors of pests. However, breeding for pest-resistant enset genotype and adoption of successful IPM controlling mechanisms to all enset growing areas need further work to alleviate the encountered challenges on the enset production areas in Ethiopia.

Biological Control of Insect Pests by Bacterial Species Present in the Environment: المكافحة الحيوية للآفات الحشرية بفعل أنواع بكتيرية متواجدة في البيئة

Because of the severe damage caused by insect pests in agricultural fields, which cost billions of dollars annually, countries used chemical pesticides to eliminate these pests. The continuous use of chemical pesticides led to many environmental impacts, besides the emergence of resistance to insect pests. Therefore, it was necessary to search for an effective treatment for insect pest problems that was environmentally friendly and safe for human health. Biological control of insect pests has gained considerable importance in agricultural fields for its efficiency and safety for humans and other non- target organisms. In addition to its natural presence in the environment, cheaper cost, and more environmentally friendly, And a better alternative to synthetic chemical pesticides as well as being environmentally safe, they not only help establish food security by fighting against insect pests but also ensure food safety, they have enormous potential for achieving agricultural sustainability and environmental safety. In this review, we will highlight the definition and classification of insect pests, microbial pesticides. Besides, the advantages and disadvantages of these kinds of pesticides. We will also focus on the most effective bacterial species used in the production of pesticides and protein toxins that kill insect pests, their mechanism of action, method of marketing, and application to insect pests. We have looked at future research in eradicating insect pests.