Undertake community level monitoring to know change in distribution and abundance of pest.
Organize regular pest monitoring and assess bio control potential at every 10 days interval.
Record pest incidence at every 5 to 10 km distance at 12 spots/ha and 5 plants/spot selected randomly.
Use pheromone traps for monitoring of American, spotted & pink bollworm and spodoptera, at a distance of 50 m @ 5 traps/ha.
Set up yellow pan/sticky traps for monitoring whitefly @ 25 yellow pans/sticky traps/ha.
Monitor the incidence of sucking pests and apply botanical pesticides if the seed treatment fails to offer desired level of protection.
Setup pheromone traps (5/ha) at the distance of 50 meters to lure the adult moths for monitoring.
Based on the incidence/observation of the traps, a second release of the egg parasitoids and predators should be done.
Deep ploughing in summer
Removal of alternate hosts.
Avoid cotton after cotton.
Adopt crop rotation.
Remove and destroy crop residues by burning
Acid delinting of seeds should be done before sowing ( with commercial sulphuric acid @ 0.1 l/kg of seed ) and fumigate with celphos @ 3g/cum for 48 hrs and get thoroughly air dried.
Grow tolerant/resistant varieties of key pests of that area
Use certified seeds
Acid delinting treatment for seeds
Seed dipping in antibiotic in black arm endemic areas
Early sowing
Seed treatment with insecticides
Use pre-emergence/ post emergence herbicides
Adopt proper spacing and maintain plant population.
Adopt judicious fertilizer and water management. Avoid excessive use of nitrogenous fertilizers. Add FYM @ 25 tonnes/ha.
Maintain weed-free crop for at least 8-9 weeks after sowing till canopy starts closing by timely inter- cultivation.
Trap cropping should be done with crops like okra, castor, marigold, Nicotiana rustica , and insect feeding on these, should be periodically removed or killed.
Inter-cropping with mung bean, soybean, groundnut, ragi, maize, cowpea and onion reduces the infestation of boll worms. However, wild brinjal reduces the whitefly incidence. Intercropping with cowpea reduces Fusarium wilt and colonise the bio control fauna such as lady bird beetles, Chrysoperla etc.
Gap filling and thinning
Inter culture & hand weeding of weeds
Check population on trap crops & inter crops
Release of Chrysoperla grubs @ 1000/ha.
Spray neem products for whitefly
If pest persists spray recommended insecticides
Crushing of larvae in the shoots mechanically
Setup pheromone traps (5/ha) at the distance of 50 meters to lure the adult moths for monitoring.
Fix yellow sticky traps for white fly
Remove & destroy root rot affected plants
Continue inter culturing & hand weeding of weeds
Management of trap crops & inter crops
Release Chrysoperla @ 10,000/ha for sucking pest
Use pheromone traps and change lures for bollworms
Management of population of bollworms in trap crops
Release of Trichogramma @ 1.5 lac/ha for bollworms
Set up bird perches
Use yellow sticky traps for whitefly
Use neem product to control whitefly
If not controlled, spray triazophos/acephae/acetamprid
Destroy plants affected with cotton leaf curly virus
Spray recommended chemical for vector control
Collection & destruction of damaged floral bodies
Collection of grown up larvae under destruction.
Use Ha.NPV @ 250-500 LE/ha
Use neem products
Removal of terminals is to be done
Spray Spodoptera NPV in evening hours.
Spray recommended insecticides Boll opening stage
Apply need based recommended insecticides
Do not extend the crop period
Use monitoring device
Use recommended acaricides for mites
Destruction of CLCV infected plants
Spot application of chemicals
Terminate the crop at maturity as early as possible and avoid ratooning to prevent the re- infestation of insect pests/diseases.
Allow grazing by animals after the last picking for checking the carry over population of bollworms (animals feed on plant debris and unopened bolls).
Dispose gin trashes by burning and ginning the seeds in the rollers to eliminate carry over of pink bollworm. Install PBW traps in ginners.
Avoid staking of the cotton stalks near the fields. Destroy the opened bolls if any on the plant before staking.
Crushing of cotton seeds to be completed by April end.
Fumigation of seeds may be undertaken with expert supervision.
