The Gazetteers Department

There are various pests of crops. A brief account of these is given in the following paragraphs. The damage caused by different pests cannot be estimated accurately, as its magnitude depends upon severity of infestation in a particular year. The remedial measures mentioned against the different pests described below are such as may be adopted by cultivators at the minimum cost.

Of Cereals and Pulses

Lashkari Alya, the swarming caterpillars (Spodaptera Mauritia) occasionally make a serious depredation on "paddy in the kliarif season. Full-grown caterpillars are dark-greenish with a slight yellow tinge. When paddy appears in the field, larvae feed on green foliage and destroy plants. Immediately after hatching, the caterpillars feed on grasses mostly at night. They are in the habit of migrating and can ravish field after field in a short time. The pest becomes rampant, when there is a long break in rains after an initial good start and is active from July to October. Healthy seed beds are protected by digging narrow, steep side-trenches to prevent their migration. If the attack is localised, caterpillars may be hand-picked and destroyed. They hide during the day time under clods. Hence, trapping them under planks or small bunches of dry grass may be tried. Poison bait spread in the evenings also helps in checking the pest. The pest can be successfully controlled by dusting five per cent Benzene hexachloride (BHC) at a rate of 20 to 30 lbs. per acre. Dusting, if done in the evening, gives better results. As a preventive measure, ploughing may be done after the harvest of the crop so as to expose the pupae.

Weel or nibc bhmgerc, Blue Beetles (Leptispa Pygmoca) generally attack the young paddy crop and feed on green shoots and leaves with the result that the plants turn white and dry up. The beetles are slightly rectangular, small, smooth and dark greenish-blue. The pest is active from August to October. It is supposed to hibernate in wild grasses during the off season probably as an adult. Beetles are collected in the seed bed itself by means of hand-nets and destroyed. The pest can he easily checked by dusting five per cent Benzene hexachloride at a rate of 15 to 20 lbs. per acre or by spraying 2 per cent Benzene hexachloride spray obtained by mixing 4 lbs. of 50 per cent BHC water dispersible powder in hundred gallons of water. Additional precautions to be taken include clipping off the tips of seedlings before transplanting so as to remove majority of eggs and dipping the seedlings in 0.2 pet-cent DDT water suspension.

Bhatache Khodalil Keed, Stem-borer (Schoenobius Bipunctifer) is pale, yellowish-white and smooth with orange-yellow coloured head. The caterpillars bore into the stems of paddy plant causing the death of central shoots. This results in the production of empty earheads. The damage caused can be recognised by the whitish appearance of growing shoots, then called dead hearts. The active period of the pest extends from July to October. Since the pest hibernates in stubbles, preventive measures alone are practicable. Thus, stubbles are collected and destroyed after the harvest of the crop; affected plants showing whitish shoots of dead hearts are removed and destroyed along with caterpillars and egg clusters which frequent at the tips of the leaves of seedlings in the seed bed are clipped during the process of transplanting.

Bhatavareei Tol, Paddy Grass―happers (Hieroglyphus Banian) eat the foliage and feed on the developing earheads. Hoppers emerge in the beginning of the rains from egg masses laid in the soil, feed on grasses and then migrate to the paddy crop. The adults are medium-sized with the hind tibia, coloured blue. The nymphs turn greenish, as they grow in size and age. After the paddy crop is harvested, scrapping of bunds, digging out the low-lying areas, etc., may help control the pest. If the pest occurs annually, it is advisable to plough a field and crush egg-masses by clod crushing with a heavy plank during April and May. Five per cent Benzene hexachloride may be spread at a rate of 20 to 30 lbs. per acre. If migration from the adjoining field occurs, two or three dustings may be found necessary. Bagging the hoppers in the early stages of attack, when the hoppers are fairly big, is also useful.

Khekade, Rice Crabs (Paraelphusa Guerini) are a great nuisance to the paddy crop in the district. When the adult female of the various species of crabs come up from their resting burrows, they bring with them young ones in their abdominal folds and liberate them in the shallow water in fields. The active period of crabs extends from July to October. The young and the adults cut paddy plants at the soil level and feed on them both before and after transplanting. They also cause breaches in the field embankments by burrowing. Fumigation of the burrows may be done with the help of cynogas 'A' dust in the evenings. Closing the burrows immediately may also be, tried. To treat a hundred burrows, half a pound of dust is required. Poison baits for killing; the crabs may also prove to be useful. Baits are prepared from two grams of boiled rice together with one-tenth gram of paris green. Baits are used in June, when crabs come out apparently hungry after a period of prolonged starvation. They should preferably be applied in the evenings.

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