• Young larvae feed gregariously on chlorophyll mostly on the under surface of the leaves, due to which the leaves look like brownish-yellow in colour.
• In later stages the larvae eat the leaves from the margin.
• The leaves of the plant give an appearance of net or web

Identification of the pest

• Eggs : Laid in cluster on the under side of leaves.
• Larva: Covered with long yellowish to black hairs
• Adult: Medium sized brown moth with a red abdomen

Management

• Deep summer ploughing.
• Avoid pre monsoon sowing.
• Use optimum seed rate.
• Adequate plant spacing should be provided
• Intercrop soybean either with (early maturing) pigeon pea variety or maize or sorghum in the sequence of 4:2 should be practiced.
• Collect & destroy infested plant parts, egg masses and young larvae.
• Field Sanitation : Remove the infested plant parts at least once in 10 days and bury them in compost pit to monitor and reduce the population.
• Light Trap : Install one light trap (200W mercury vapour lamp) per hectare to catch the adults of some nocturnal pests such as hairy caterpillar (positively phototropic).
• Apply chlorpyriphos 20 EC @ 1.5 lit/ha or quinalphos 25 EC @ 1.5 lit/ha.
• Dust Chlorpyriphos 1.5% DP quinalphos 1.5% @ 25kg/ha when the population is likely to reach 10/m row length (ETL). Repeat it as needed.