Managing mealy bug menace in custard apple

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Managing mealy bug menace in custard apple

Custard apple is mainly used as a dessert fruit. Developing fruits are
often infested by two species of mealy bugs mainly the striped mealy
bug and citrus mealy bug.
These mealy bugs are small, pink coloured and soft bodied insects
covered with white mealy wax.
Nymphs and adults fix their mouth at fissures and furrows of rounded
fleshy tubercles of the green fruits.
When they infest developing fruits and suck the sap the size of the
fruit becomes diminished, shrivelled and undergo premature dropping.
These mealy bugs also infest at fruit stalks, leaves and terminal
shoots causing, yellowing and drying symptoms.

Pest biology
The pest prefers dry weather and heavy incidence often occurs
following periods of prolonged drought. They are active and mobile
throughout their life.
Reproduction is both sexual and through parthenogenesis, the latter
being more common. Females lay 100-300 eggs which hatch into nymphs in
3-4 days. The nymph’s period is around 45 days. The longevity of males
is 1 to 3 days while that of females extends from 36 to 53 days.

Management methods
To check the infestation of these pests, remove and destroy the
affected leaves, fruits and twigs.
Apply diazinon or monocrotophos at 0.1 per cent concentration.
Spraying of 5 per cent neem seed kernel extract or 3 per cent neem oil
suspension is effective.
The soil around trees should be ploughed up to a depth of 75 cm
followed by mixing of dust formulation of insecticides such as lindane
1.3 per cent or endosulfan 4 per cent at 10 kg/ acre could be done.
A number of parasites are parasitizing the mealy bugs in nature as
biological control agents.
Release of Cryptoleamus montrouzieri (ladybird beetle) @ 10 Nos./ tree
would be quite effective to predate upon the eggs and nymphs of the
mealy bugs.

J. JAYARAJ
& M. ANANTHAN

Horticultural Research Station
Thadiyankudisai
Perumparai, Dindigul
Tamil Nadu