NON-INSECT PESTS OF VEGETABLES,
ORNAMENTALS
AND SPICE CROPS
1. MITE PESTS
Four to five families of mite species infests vegetables,
ornamentals and spice crops,
Eriophyidae – Eriophyid mites or gall mites or eranium mites
-They causes leaf curl of young leaves or cause Eranium or
acts as vector
➢ Onion and Garlic Eriophyid mite, Aceria tulipae (=Eriophyes
tulipae)- vector for mosaic virus
➢ Redgram / pigeonpea eriophyid mite - Aceria cajani - Transmits
sterility mosaic disease
➢ Jasmine Eriophyid / Eranium mite: Aceria jasmine
Tetranychidae – Spider mites -They causes yellow specks,
withering, and drying of leaves, also webs foliage and flowers
➢ Red spider mite Tetranychus urticae infests solanaceous,
cucurbitaceous, malvaceous, legumes, and leafy vegetables,
Ornamental flower crops.
➢ Tetranychus macfarlanei on bhendi
Tenuipalpidae – False spider mites or scarlet mites - They
causes yellowing, withering, and drying of leaves - Not
considered as pest on vegetables, ornamentals and spice crops.
They are pests of areca and gauva
Tarsonemidae – Yellow mites or chilli mites or broad mites - They
causes downward curling of terminal leaves - Chilli mite/ Yellow
mite / Broad mite: Polyphagotarsonemus latus on chilli, capsicum,
potato, marigold, etc.
Rhizoglyphidae - Bulb Mite of onion and garlic: Rhizoglyphus
robini – results in rotting of bulbs
Management of mites
➢ Remove and destroy the infested plant parts.
➢ Resistant varieties
➢ Integrated Nutrient management to manage coconut mite
➢ Encourage the activity of predatory mites (Phytoseius spp,
Amblyseius spp), predatory lady bird beetle, Stethorus sp. and
thrips.
➢ Apply wettable sulphur 80 WP @ 3g/l or Dicofol 18.5 EC @
2.5ml/l or Fenazaquin 10 EC@ 1.5ml/l or Propargite 57 EC
@1.7ml/L or fenpyroximate 5% EC @ 0.75 ml/L or fenpropathrin
30% EC @ 0.4 ml/L or hexythiazox 5.45% EC @ 0.75 ml/L
(directing the spray on the ventral surface of leaves).
[Link] PESTS
➢ They are omnivorous –
feed on grains, vegetable,
fruit, meat, etc
➢ Pest in field and in store
➢ Apart from feeding, they
destroy by spoilage and
contamination (with their
droppings, urine, body hairs,
etc)
➢ Rats daily consumes
about 10% of its body weight,
damages about 20 times the
amount it actually consumes
Management
1. Monitoring: regular monitoring is required
2. Co-operation: control measure should be taken in campaign
basis and in syncronizaton
3. Preventive measures:
i. Sanitation: which decreases the availability of food and shelter
and other resting sites
ii. Proofing: use rat proof containers, rat proof windows, plaster
the tunnels and seal the crevices in doors
4. Mechanical measures:
i. Use of traps (glue traps)
ii. Smoking or water flushing into the borrows
iii. Use of ultra sonic devices to repell rats
iv. Tin banding on tree trunk (in coconut)
v. Encouraging rat catchers
5. Natural Prevention: encouraging cats and dogs
6. Chemical methods:
i. Fumigation of borrows using Aluminium phosphide tablets
ii. Use of chemosterilants: Furadantine (0.02g) or colchicines
(0.14g)
iii. Use of rodenticides like Zinc phosphide, Bromodiolone,
Warfarin
Zinc phosphide
➢ Acute / single dose poison (kills quickly)
➢ Affects respiration by releasing phosphine gas
➢ It is used with bait (1 part zinc phosphide : 49 parts wheat
flour / grain flour / cooked rice + edible oil). Pre-baiting without
poison for 5-7 days is necessary.
Bromodiolone - Single dose anti-coagulant
Warfarin
➢ Chronic / multiple dose poison
➢ Multiple dose anti-coagulant
➢ Used in bait (1 part poison : 19 parts corn / rice)
3. SNAIL AND SLUG PESTS
➢ They are Gastropods belongs to phylum Mollusca
➢ Snails are molluscans with shell whereas slugs without the
shell
➢ Giant African snails – Achatina fulica
- Large, nocturnal in habit
- Lay eggs in soil surface or just below
- A female can lay 200eggs at a time and total upto 1000 eggs
- IP- 1 week, maturation period – 9 months
- It feeds on many vegetables, fruits, plantation, ornamental
plants. Also feeds on dry leaves and dead snails.
- During day time, they hide below fallen leaves, under stones,
lower surface of papaya and banana leaves, etc
Slug: Limax sp
Management
➢ Predatory crabs can kill the snails, eat and occupy the
shell
➢ Millipede – Orthomorpha sp, Ganaxis quadrilateralis,
Euglandina rosea
➢ Collection and destruction (by immersing them in salt or
soap water)
➢ In rainy season, trap them using wet gunny bags by
spreading them in the field or in green houses
➢ Use of molluscicide i.e. Metaldehyde bait
➢ Use Methomyl 40SP and ripened papaya bait
4. BIRD PESTS
➢ They are pest in field and store
➢ They cause damage by eating, spillage, spoilage, damaging
packaging material, contamination, spread disease like
salmonella, tuberculosis, allergy, etc
➢ Also causes nuisance
Mynah (Acridotherus tristis),
Management
➢ Cover the open stock with tarpulin
➢ Cover window and ventilators with mesh
➢ Tie cassette tapes / metallic tape / ribbion in the field
➢ Use crackers
➢ Destroy roosting sites
➢ Fruit bagging with poly covers or butter covers
➢ Use of repellent like – Fenthion, Cyanaphos, Mevinphos,
Methiocarb, Thiram, etc
➢ Use of bird scarer – mechanical or chemical (using calcium
carbide)
5. BATS – Cynopterus sphinx – pest of grape – netting is
recommended
6. MONKEY – Macaca sp – use Monkey gun, UV tourch
7. PORCUPINE – Hystrix indica – pest on tuber crops - use
low voltage electrical fencing
PESTICIDE RESIDUE IN HORTICULTURAL CROPS
AND ITS ANALYSIS
Deposit: The amount of pesticide initially present on the
produce after application of pesticide
Residue: The amount of pesticide present on the produce after
lapse of time
The applied pesticide is broken down by the action of light, air,
micro-organisms, by plant metabolism, etc.
The pesticide residue may cause harmful effects which may be
acute or chronic. Therefore there are legislation to regulate
the levels of pesticide residue in food material and it is guided
by the concepts of ADI and MRL
Accaptible Daily Intake (ADI): of a chemical is the daily intake,
during an entire lifetime, appears to be without appreciable risk,
on the basis of all facts known at the time.
It is expressed in mg / kg body weight / day
Maximum residue level or limit (MRL): is the maximum amount
of pesticide residue that is expressed to remain on food products
when a pesticide is used according to label directions, that will
not be a concern to human health.
It is expressed in mg/kg produce or ppm
MRL is fixed by Codex Alimentarius Commission on the basis of ADI.
Based on MRL, pre-harvest interval (PHI) or waiting period is fixed to each
crop
Pesticide residue analysis (PRA):
There are four steps in PRA –
1. Sampling,
2. Extraction,
3. Clean-up and
4. Analysis
Sampling: Representative sample (fruit or vegetable or soil or
water or any) should be drawn.
More number of samples will give precise results
Extraction: process by which the toxicant is transferes from the
sample into a solvent. It can be done by surface rinsing,
soxhlet extraction, maceration and blending method, etc.
Clean-up: Isolation of toxicant from interfering substance (i.e.
from solvent). It can be done by methods like liquid-liquid
partitioning, chromatography, sweep co-distillation, High
performance liquid chromatography (HPLC), Chemical methods
(oxidation or saponification), physical methods (crystallization or
freezing)
Analysis: it includes quantification of residue. There are two
methods chemical methods (spectrophotometry,chromatography,
enzyme inhibition method) and micro-bioassay
Pesticide residue analysis
Collect 2kg of sample &
crush/grind
Weigh 10g sample in 50ml tube. Add
ethyl acetate
Homogenize at 13-14000 rpm.
Add 9g Anhy. Na2So4+1g NaCl.
Shake it & Centrifuge at 3000rpm for 5 min.
Transfer 6-8 ml Of extract to 15ml tube
containing 50mg PSA & 150mg MgSo4
per ml. Vortex for 1min
Transfer 2ml
extract into vial Filter 2 ml
& evaporate extract through
using nitrogen 0.2micron
concentrator at membrane
35-40’c
BY: GLORIOUS
TITANS 2022-25
