Mango Stem Borer and it’s Management

Mango Stem Borer and it’s Management

                    Mango Stem Borer (Batocera rufomaculata), a species of beetle  of  the family Cerambycidae, was found to occur endophytically in the stem tissue of mango trees, is a major insect pest of mango all over the world. The reduction in yield due to this vicious insect is unpredictable. In some localities the farmers are destroying the total orchards due to the heavy infestation of this pest.

Symptoms of damage:

• Grub tunnels in the sapwood or the trunk or branches and make irregular tunnels. It feed on the vascular tissues and interruption of nutrient and water transport on the tissue to the crown from the root.

• Drying of terminal shoot in early stage.

• Frass/ excreta come out from several points and sometimes oozing of sap also observed from the entrance the hole.

• Wilting of branches or entire tree.

Control measures:

• Removal and destroying of the dead the severely affected branches of the tree.

• Removal of alternate host, silk cotton and other hosts.

• Growing of tolerant mango varieties viz., Neelam, Humayudin etc.

• Swab Coal tar + Kerosene @ 1:2 or Carbaryl 50 WP 20 g / l (basal portion of the trunk - 3 feet height) after scraping the loose bark to prevent oviposition by adult beetles.

• Padding with monocrotophos 36 WSC 10 ml in 2.5 cm / tree soaked in absorbent cotton.

• If infestations are severe then apply the copper oxychloride paste on the trunk of the tree.

• Hook out the grub from the bore hole - apply monocrotophos 36 WSC 10 - 20 ml/ hole. One celphos tablet (3 g aluminum phosphide) per hole or place cotton swab soaked with kerosene on the entrance hole in trunk and plaster the hole with mud.

• Apply carbofuran 3G@ 5 g per hole and plug with mud.

• Orchard sanitation and destruction of dry shoots from the tree followed by application of Imidacloprid 17.8 SL was the most effective in minimizing the borer damage.