Pest:Snake Gourd Caterpillar

Anadevidia peponis

Noctuide

The adult is a stout dark brown moth with dark patches on fore wings. The caterpillar is a semilooper with whitish green body with black warts. The greenish white ,spherical and beautifully sculptured eggs are laid singly on the tender leaves. The full fed larvae reaches 3.8 cm in length and is humped at its anal end. The pupation takes place in the leaf fold in a thin silken cocoon padded with plenty of white silk. The caterpillars are parasitized by Apanteles taragame and A .plusiae and pupae by Brachymeria marginata,Tetrastichus spp and Trichospilus pupivora.

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  • pest 07
  • pest 07

Symptoms

  • The damage caused by caterpillars is often serious causing large scale defoliation.
  • Very severe damage is sometimes noticed on young plants.
  • In such cases the vines get stripped off of all leaves.
  • Flowers and young fruits also are eaten up by the caterpillars.

Procedure for Observation

Count the total number of caterpillars from five one square meter area. Work out the average. Mild <5 caterpillars per sq meter. Moderate 5-10 ,Severe > 10.

ETL

  • 5 per sq.meter.

    • Control Measures

  • Collect the caterpillar and destroy.
  • Spray cow's urine hot chilly mixture diluted in water (One lit of cow's urine plus 10 lit of water plus 30 grams of well crushed hot chillies. Filter before spraying).
  • Spray BT formulation ( Biolep/Biobit/Delphin/Halt/Dipel) @ 0.7 ml per lit.
  • Spray Beauveria bassiana @ 20 g/lit or 5 ml/lit