Lecture 14: TRADITIONAL METHODS OF PEST CONTROL

CULTURAL CONTROL
Definition : Manipulation of cultural practices to the disadvantage of pests.
I. Farm level pratices

S.No. Cropping Techniques Pest Checked

1. Ploughing Red hairy caterpillar
2. Puddling Rice mealy bug
3. Trimming and plastering Rice grass hopper
4. Pest free seed material Potato tuber moth
5. High seed rate Sorghum shootfly
6. Rogue space planting Rice brown planthopper
7. Plant density Rice brown planthopper
8. Earthing up Sugarcane whitefly
9. Detrashing Sugarcane whitefly
10. Destruction of weed hosts Citrus fruit sucking moth
11. Destruction of alternate host Cotton whitefly
12. Flooding Rice armyworm
13. Trash mulching Sugarcane early shoot borer
14. Pruning / topping Rice stem borer
15. Intercropping Sorghum stem borer
16. Trap cropping Diamond back moth
17. Water management Brown planthopper
18. Judicious application of fertilizers Rice leaf folder
19. Timely harvesting Sweet potato weevil

II. Community level practices

1. Synchronized sowing : Dilution of pest infestation (eg) Rice, Cotton
2. Crop rotation : Breaks insect life cycle
3. Crop sanitation
a) Destruction of insect infested parts (eg.) Mealy bug in brinjal
b) Removal of fallen plant parts (eg.) Cotton squares
c) Crop residue destruction (eg.) Cotton stem weevil
 Advantages Disadvantages
1. No extra skill 1. No complete control
2. No costly inputs 2. Prophylactic nature
3. No special equipments 3. Timing decides success
4. Minimal cost
5. Good component in IPM
6. Ecologically sound

PHYSICAL CONTROL
Modification of physical factors in the environment to minimise (or) prevent
pest problems. Use of physical forces like temperature, moisture, etc. in managing the
insect pests.

A. Manipulation of temperature
1. Sun drying the seeds to kill the eggs of stored product pests.
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2. Hot water treatment (50 - 55 C for 15 min) against rice white tip nematode.
3. Flame throwers against locusts.
4. Burning torch against hairy caterpillars.
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5. Cold storage of fruits and vegetables to kill fruitflies (1 - 2 C for 12 - 20 days).

B. Manipulation of moisture
1. Alternate drying and wetting rice fields against BPH.
2. Drying seeds (below 10% moisture level) affects insect development.
3. Flooding the field for the control of cutworms.

C. Manipulation of light
1. Treating the grains for storage using IR light to kill all stages of insects (eg.)
Infra-red seed treatment unit (Fig.1).
2. Providing light in storage go downs as the lighting reduces the fertility of
Indian meal moth, Plodia.
3. Light trapping.

D. Manipulation of air
1. Increasing the CO2 concentration in controlled atmosphere of stored grains to
cause asphyxiation in stored product pests.

E. Use of irradiation
60
Gamma irradiation from Co is used to sterilize the insects in laboratory
which compete with the fertile males for mating when released in natural condition.
(eg.) cattle screw worm fly, Cochliomyia hominivorax control in Curacao Island by
E.F.Knipling.
F. Use of greasing material
Treating the stored grains particularly pulses with vegetable oils to prevent the
oviposition and the egg hatching. eg., bruchid adults.

G. Use of visible radiation : Yellow colour preferred by aphids, cotton whitefly :

yellow sticky traps.

H. Use of Abrasive dusts

1. Red earth treatment to red gram : Injury to the insect wax layer.
2. Activated clay : Injury to the wax layer resulting in loss of moisture leading to
death. It is used against stored product pests.
3. Drie-Die : This is a porous finely divided silica gel used against storage
insects.

Preparation of activated clay :

Kaolinite clay

POWDERING

ACID ACTIVATION
In H2SO4 10 N

DIGESTION (Autoclave - 1 hr in 15 lb)

WASHING

DRYING

POWDERING AND SIEVING IN 100 MESH HEAT

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ACTIVATION (Muffle furnace - 4hrs at 400 C)

ACTIVATED CLAY

MECHANICAL CONTROL
Use of mechanical devices or manual forces for destruction or exclusion of
pests.
A. Mechanical destruction : Life stages are killed by manual (or) mechanical
force.
Manual Force
1. Hand picking the caterpillars
2. Beating : Swatting housefly and mosquito
3. Sieving and winnowing : Red flour beetle (sieving) rice weevil (winnowing)
4. Shaking the plants : Passing rope across rice field to dislodge caseworm and
shaking neem tree to dislodge June beetles
5. Hooking : Iron hook is used against adult rhinoceros beetle
6. Crushing : Bed bugs and lice
7. Combing : Delousing method for Head louse
8. Brushing : Woolen fabrics for clothes moth, carper beetle.

Mechanical force
1. Entoletter : Centrifugal force - breaks infested kernels - kill insect stages -
whole grains unaffected - storage pests.
2. Hopper dozer : Kill nymphs of locusts by hording into trenches and filled with
soil.
3. Tillage implements : Soil borne insects, red hairy caterpillar.
4. Mechnical traps : Rat traps of various shapes like box trap, back break trap,
wonder trap, Tanjore bow trap.

B. Mechanical exclusion
Mechanical barriers prevent access of pests to hosts.
1. Wrapping the fruits : Covering with polythene bag against pomegrante fruit
borer.
2. Banding : Banding with grease or polythene sheets - Mango mealybug.
3. Netting : Mosquitoes, vector control in green house.
4. Trenching : Trapping marching larvae of red hairy catepiller.
5. Sand barrier : Protecting stored grains with a layer of sand on the top.
6. Water barrier : Ant pans for ant control.
7. Tin barrier : Coconut trees protected with tin band to prevent rat damage.
8. Electric fencing : Low voltage electric fences against rats.

Advantage of mechanical control Disadvantages

1. Home labour utilization 1. Limited application
2. Low equipment cost 2. Rarely highly effective
3. Ecologically safe 3. Labour intensive
4. High technical skill not required in adopting.

Appliances in controlling the pests

1. Light traps : Most adult insects are attracted towards light in night. This
principle is used to attract the insect and trapped in a mechanical device.
a) Incandescent light trap : They produce radiation by heating a tungsten
filament. The spectrum of lamp include a small amount of ultraviolet,
considerable visible especially rich in yellow and red. (eg.) Simple
incandescent light trap (Fig. 2), portable incandescent electric (Fig.3). Place a
pan of kerosenated water below the light source.

b) Mercury vapour lamp light trap : They produce primarily ultraviolet, blue and
green radiation with little red. (eg.) Robinson trap (Fig.4). This trap is the
basic model designed by Robinson in 1952. This is currently used towards a
wide range of Noctuids and other nocturnal flying insects. A mercury lamp
(125 W) is fixed at the top of a funnel shaped (or) trapezoid galvanized iron
cone terminating in a collection jar containing dichlorvos soaked in cotton as
insecticide to kill the insect.

c) Black light trap : Black light (Fig.5) is popular name for ultraviolet radiant
energy with the range of wavelengths from 320-380 nm. Some commercial
type like Pest-O-Flash, Keet-O-Flash are available in market. Flying insects
are usually attracted and when they come in contact with electric grids, they
become elctrocuted and killed.

2. Pheromone trap : Synthetic sex pheromones are placed in traps to attract

males. The rubberised septa, containing the pheromone lure are kept in traps
designed specially for this purpose and used in insect monitoring / mass
trapping programmes. Sticky trap (Fig.6), water pan trap (Fig.7) and funnel
type (Fig.8) models are available for use in pheromone based insect control
programmes.

3. Yellow sticky trap : Cotton whitefly, aphids, thrips prefer yellow colour.
Yellow colour is painted on tin boxes and sticky material like castor oil /
vaseline is smeared on the surface (Fig.9). These insects are attracted to
yellow colour and trapped on the sticky material.
4. Bait trap : Attractants placed in traps are used to attract the insect and kill
them. (eg.) Fishmeal trap: This trap is used against sorghum shootfly.
Moistened fish meal is kept in polythene bag or plastic container inside the tin
along with cotton soaked with insecticide (DDVP) to kill the attracted flies
(Fig.10&11).
5. Pitfall trap helps to trap insects moving about on the soil surface, such as
ground beetles, collembola, spiders. These can be made by sinking glass jars
 (or) metal cans into the soil. It consists of a plastic funnel, opening into a
plastic beaker containing kerosene supported inside a plastic jar (Fig. 12).
6. Probe trap : Probe trap is used by keeping them under grain surface to trap
stored product insect (Fig.13).
7. Emergence trap : The adults of many insects which pupate in the soil can be
trapped by using suitable covers over the ground. A wooden frame covered
with wire mesh covering and shaped like a house roof is placed on soil
surface. Emerging insects are collected in a plastic beaker fixed at the top of
the frame (Fig.14).

8. Indicator device for pulse beetle detection : A new cup shaped indicator device has
been recently designed to predict timely occurrence of pulse beetle Callosobruchus
spp. This will help the farmers to know the correct time of emergence of pulse beetle.
This will help them in timely sun drying which can bill all the eggs.