Spider mites are members of the Acari (mite) family Tetranychidae, which includes about 1,200 other species. Spider mites are extremely tiny creatures, less than 1mm (0.04 in) in size and they vary in color. Among plant pests, mites are amongst the most difficult to control, and are responsible for a significant portion of all pesticides used on ornamentals. Individual spider mites are almost microscopic, yet when they occur in large numbers, they can cause serious plant damage. They generally live on the undersides of leaves of plants, where they may spin protective silk webs, and they can cause damage by puncturing the plant cells to feed. Spider mites are known to feed on several hundred species of plants. They lay small, spherical, initially transparent eggs and many species spin silk webbing to help protect the colony from predators; they get the “spider” part of their common name from this webbing.  A single mature female can spawn a population of a million mites in a month or less. This accelerated reproductive rate allows spider mite populations to adapt quickly to changing conditions. Usually one should look out for Spider mite damage in the summer months when the temperatures are high and conditions are dry as these conditions are most suitable to spider mite proliferation.

Many different species attack shade trees, shrubs and herbaceous plants. Spider mites attack a wide range of plants, including peppers, tomatoes, potatoes, beans, corn, cannabis, and strawberries.  The top of the leaves look like they have a bronze cast to them usually, but sometimes the look may be a silvery cast or even just a dull gray look. When spider mites attack the underside of leaves, we may mistake them for dust as they give a brownish brazen tinge.

Spider mites lack chewing or piercing-sucking mouthparts. They use a pair of needle-like stylets to rupture leaf cells and then push their mouth into the torn tissue to drink the cell sap. Small groups of cells are killed, which results in a stippling or speckling on the upper leaf surface. On plants which are heavily infested, the foliage will often become gray, yellow, bleached, dry, or bronzed, with leaf drop, loss of vigor and eventual death if untreated. With a magnifying hand lens, cast skins, eggshells, and individual mites, as well as mite colonies, are visible on the undersides of leaves.

An early sign of infestation is a very fine, light speckling or localized pale yellow spots on the upper surface of leaves. Careful examination of the undersides of affected leaves, preferably with a hand lens or magnifying glass, will reveal colonies of mites. A more generalized bronzing discoloration develops as infestation progresses.

Spider mites continue to be a pest problem in dry beans, soybeans and field corn in droughty areas. When left untreated, spider mites can cause extensive and irreversible damage to soybean foliage, so growers need to keep an eye on their fields – especially if the weather remains dry. Researchers muse that ‘Amino acids are more available to insects when they feed on stressed soybeans instead of healthy soybeans’. This means that the mites can proactively use these nutrients from stressed plants to synthesize proteins for use in their reproduction.

Spider mite damage is typically most visible at first in the most stressed areas of the field; this often includes field edges. Soybean growers are likely to first notice foliar damage in the form of subtle stippling of leaves, which can progress to bronzing.

If a mite infestation develops, leaves may be severely damaged and the food manufacturing ability of the plants progressively reduced. If an infestation is severe, leaves may be killed. In corn, effects on yield are most severe when mites start damaging leaves at or above the ear level. Infestations may reduce corn grain yields due to poor seed fill and they have been associated with accelerated plant dry down in the fall. The quality and yield of silage corn also may decline due to mite feeding.

Damage is similar in soybeans, and includes leaf spotting, leaf droppage, accelerated senescence and pod shattering, as well as yield loss. Early and severe mite injury left untreated can completely eliminate yields. More commonly, mite injury occurring during the late vegetative and early reproductive growth stages will reduce soybean yields 40%-60%. Spider mites can cause yield reductions as long as green pods are present.

Not just soybean and corn, other crops of great economic importance like coffee beans have to bear the brunt of a mite infestation. Let us look at the following news article:

Spider mites latest threat to Colombian coffee crop

September 06, 2012|Reuters

Colombian farmer Jairo Morales is worried. His coffee trees are speckled with crimson as tiny red spider mites attack his plantation, posing a threat not only to his livelihood but also to output in the world’s No. 3 coffee growing country.

The mites cling to the leaves of coffee plants and gradually turn them reddish until they wither and die.

The threat comes at a time in which Colombia is struggling to raise annual coffee output to 11 million 60-kilogram sacks, the country’s long-term average.

The tiny arachnids have always been a menace to coffee crops in the Andean country, but other predator insects have usually kept them at bay.

“This has been a surprise. I’d never seen anything like this in the many years that I’ve been growing coffee. I often see small areas by the side of the road, but never an attack like this,” Morales said.

Red spider mites have attacked many plantations in Caldas, the No. 4 coffee producing region in Colombia, contributing about 10 percent to the country’s total coffee output.

Morales suspect that the increasing number of spider mites could be a consequence of the ashes that covered the area after the Nevado del Ruiz volcano eruption in June, which apparently killed the insects that prey on the arachnids.

“The risk is that they ‘burn’ the leaves, and it takes a long time for the plants to recover,” said the farmer at his plantation on a mountain slope in the Caldas region.

“If the coffee trees fail to grow branches and flower we’ll lose the crop that we’re about to harvest and we can lose next year’s because they will not flower,” he said.

Crops in the Quindio, Risaralda and Valle del Cauca regions also have been hit, though less severely, according to the coffee grower’s federation.

Colombia, the world’s top producer of high-quality arabica beans, has missed its annual coffee production goals for three consecutive years due to torrential rains brought on by the weather phenomenon La Nina.

Heavy rains prevent flowering, which last year resulted in an output of 7.8 million sacks, the lowest in three decades. Production this year is expected to be around 8 million bags.

Moreover, due to their ever-growing population, spider mites quickly adapt to changes and learn to resist pesticides, so chemical control methods can become somewhat ineffective when the same pesticide is used over a prolonged period. Spider mites are difficult to control with pesticides, and many commonly used insecticides aggravate the problem by destroying their natural enemies. Use of the wrong pesticide at the wrong time can result in a season-long infestation of mites, which will be difficult to control with miticides. Although the labels on common pesticides do include spider mites, they usually contain pyrethroid. Because they contain pyrethroids they will be highly toxic to all beneficial insects such as predatory mites, big-eyed bugs and other insects that would normally prey on the spider mites. What is likely to happen following a pesticide application is that some of the spider mites will be killed and most or all of the predators also will be killed. Very quickly, the spider mites that were not killed by the application will begin to produce eggs, and when those eggs hatch there will not be any predators present to kills the mites. Thus the use of conventional pesticides will not effectively deal with the problem, but just might aggravate it further! The conventional pesticides and insecticides can thus not ensure that the problem won’t recur.

Termirepel™ a product by C Tech Corporation can provide much-needed relief from this problem. Termirepel™ is a non-toxic, non-hazardous insect and pest repellent. It is effective against a wide array of pests that attack the agricultural sector, some worse and difficult to eradicate like spider mites. Termirepel™ is available in the form of a liquid concentrate which can be further diluted and made into a spray, to be sprayed on the plants. Termirepel™ is also available in the form of polymer masterbatches to be added to agricultural films and micro-irrigation pipes during processing. This product will not kill the spider mite population but will just discourage their proliferation as well as return. It is designed in such as a way so as to discourage subsequent attacks. Thus it works on the principle of prevention being better than cure.

The glassy-winged sharpshooter is a large leafhopper species native to the south-eastern United States. It is one of the main vectors of the bacterium Xylella fastidiosa, a plant pathogen that causes a variety of plant diseases, including phony peach disease of peach and Pierce’s disease of grape. It obtains its nutrients by feeding on plant fluids in the water-conducting tissues of a plant. Feeding on plants rarely causes significant plant damage, although the insects do excrete copious amounts of liquid that can make leaves and fruit appear whitewashed when dry. The excrement is a special nuisance when shade trees are heavily infested because cars parked under the trees tend to become spotted. During hot weather, heavy populations of glassy-winged sharpshooters feeding on small plants may cause them to wilt.

The real problem associated with glassy-winged sharpshooter, however, is that it can spread the disease-causing bacterium Xylella fastidiosa from one plant to another. This bacterium is the causal agent of devastating plant diseases such as Pierce’s disease of grape, oleander leaf scorch, almond leaf scorch and mulberry leaf scorch. Other diseases to landscape plants in California include sweet gum dieback and cherry plum leaf scorch. When a glassy-winged sharpshooter feeds on a plant that is infected with X. fastidiosa, it acquires the bacteria, which multiplies within the insect’s mouthparts. The sharpshooter then transfers the bacteria to another plant when it feeds. The glassy-winged sharpshooter feeds on plants through straw-like mouthparts inserted into the xylem tissue which conducts water throughout the plant. Because nutrients are diluted in xylem fluid, the insect must process large volumes to meet nutritional needs. Thus, this pest produces copious amounts of watery excreta and is a social nuisance as the liquid rains down from large populations feeding on ornamental trees.

In infested citrus orchards, tree canopies take on a white-washed appearance by mid-summer due to the buildup of residues after the evaporation of these watery excreta. Different strains of this bacterium induce severe diseases in many agricultural and ornamental plants. In ornamental horticulture, an important part of the landscape in the southwest will be lost if oleander leaf scorch continues to spread and resistant oleander varieties are not found. Oleander is found in 20% of all home gardens in California, and is a mainstay of landscapes in shopping centers, parks and golf courses. It is estimated that Caltrans alone stands to suffer at least a $52 million loss if oleander on highway plantings is lost. In the city of Tustin (Orange County), approximately $200,000 was requisitioned to pay for removal of oleanders maintained on city greenbelts and for replanting other ornamental species. Another huge economic problem lies in the transport of ornamentals by wholesale nurseries as this industry is subjected to rigorous inspections and mandatory insecticide applications to minimize the accidental shipment of the glassy-winged sharpshooter into uninfested areas of California. The Agriculture Appropriation Act of 2002 included $8.5 million in funding for controlling the glassy-winged sharpshooter.

The below article would better explain these menacing insects.

Pesky, destructive insect discovered in Marin

 March 13, 2015

By Chris Rooney

 As if unreliable weather patterns aren’t enough to drive grape growers over the edge, a new threat for vintners has reared its ugly head in Marin County — the glass-winged sharpshooter.

 “People need to know how devastating this pest can be,” Marin County Agricultural Commissioner Stacy Carlsen said. “We want to keep it out of the county.”

 The destructive insect sucks the fluids out of plants and can wreak horticultural havoc in agricultural areas. One critter was recently found in Marin County during a routine inspection of a nursery shipment from Ventura County.

 Despite thorough efforts to inspect plants being shipped from southern California to local nurseries, Carlsen said the sharpshooter can sneak by.

“Check your plants and make sure there are no hitchhikers,” Carlsen said.

 Carlsen reported that an agricultural program assistant with the Marin County Department of Agriculture captured an adult glassy-winged sharpshooter on Feb. 26 while checking an incoming plant shipment.

 According to a Bay City News report, that shipment has since been returned, but the name of the nursery that sent it is being withheld to prevent unwanted attention, according to the Department of Agriculture.

 The species damages a wide variety of plants and spreads lethal diseases to crops such as almonds and grapes for which there are no known cures.

 According to the University of California Integrated Pest Management Program, the glassy-winged sharpshooter, Homalodisca vitripennis, is an insect that was inadvertently introduced into southern California in the early 1990s.

 It is native to the southeastern United States and was most likely brought into California accidentally as egg masses in ornamental or agricultural plant foliage.

 The real problem associated with glassy-winged sharpshooter, however, is that it can spread the disease-causing bacterium, Xylella fastidiosa, from one plant to another. This bacterium is the causal agent of devastating plant diseases such as Pierce’s disease of grape, oleander leaf scorch, almond leaf scorch and mulberry leaf scorch. Other diseases to landscape plants in California include sweet gum dieback and cherry plum leaf scorch.

 The principal reason for controlling the glassy-winged sharpshooter is to prevent the spread of the Xylella bacterium to susceptible plants. Because very low numbers of sharpshooters can spread the disease, it is not known how effective insecticides applied to suppress sharpshooters will be in controlling disease spread; research is currently underway to study this issue.

 The current strategy for containing the problem is to keep the insect out of new areas.

What we need is a solution which would effectively keep the glassy-winged sharpshooter population in check, keeping them away from our trees, while at the same time not having any negative impact on the environment.

C Tech Corporation offers a product called Termirepel™, which is a non-toxic, non-hazardous, environmentally safe insect repellent. It can repel more than 500 species of insects on account of it being a broad spectrum anti-insect repellent. The most striking feature of Termirepel™ is that it neither kills the target species, nor the non-target species. It will simply keep the insects away from the application. This product is available in masterbatch and lacquer form, and as a liquid solution. Termirepel™ can be incorporated in agricultural bags and films or coated on trunks, which could be used to keep our trees safe and guarded against these pesky insects!

Be it homeowners, hotel owners, library owners or theatre owners, they have one enemy in common and they are termites!! And when they are as dangerous as Coptotermes acinaciformis, there is a great reason to worry about. Let’s get to know more about these species.

Coptotermes acinaciformis can be found in widespread areas throughout Australia. They are predominantly found in urban areas and where eucalypts are abundant. They are the second most destructive termite in Australia and cause the greatest amount of structural damage to buildings, timber structures, trees and electrical wiring.

These species are most commonly found in the base of trees and stumps and in built in patios, under concrete slabs and buried timber, wherever there is moisture and a secure hiding place to form a nest. They love it between garden sheds and the fence when timber is left there. One of the most destructive elements of this species is that it can form ancillary nests, away from the main colony, particularly in wall cavities.

Coptotermes acinaciformis are subterranean termite species 5.0-6.6 mm in length, and they have sabre like the mandibles with no obvious teeth. The labrum is not grooved and the head is pear shaped and rounded laterally. Fontanelle is obvious on the anterior part of the head. Tarsi (skeleton) have 4 segments and abdominal cerci have 2 segments. It pronotum(dorsal) is flat and it does not have any anterior lobe.

The life cycle of these species is a gradual process. Queen lays eggs singly. A nymph after hatching passes through 4-7 moults before becoming a mature worker, soldier or winged reproductive. Nymphs resemble the adults or mature castes. Nymphal stage lasts approximately 2-3 months, depending of food and climatic conditions. No pupal stage exists. Soldiers and workers live for 1-2 years.

There are 4 different castes of adults:

1. Queen and King:

The queen and king are the original winged reproductives (dealates). When a new colony is formed the pair must feed and care for the young until there are sufficient soldiers and workers to take over the duties of the colony.

2. Worker:

This is the most abundant caste in the colony, performing all the tasks except defence and reproduction. It is this caste that does damage to timber. These are the males and females whose sexual organs and characteristics have not developed. They are wingless, blind and sterile. They also have a thin cuticlewhich makes them susceptible to desiccation. They are the kind of species which will leave the security of underground tunnels and shelter tubes only when humidity is high or in the search for new food sources.

3. Soldier:

This is the most distinctive and the easiest caste from which to identify a species. The role of this caste is to defend the colony. These consist of males and females whose sexual organs and characteristics have not developed. Li ke the workers caste, they are susceptible to dessication and seldom leave the colony or shelter ubes. The fontanelle is used to discharge a secretion associated with defence, since it is a repellent to ants and other enemies of termites.

4. Reproductive:

They are the future kings and queens. Having compound eyes, they are darker in colour and have a more dense cuticle than workers and soldiers. They are often large. When fully winged(alates) a colonising flight will occur when humidity and temperature conditions outside approximate the conditions inside the colony, normally in summer months.

These mostly nests in trees, stumps, poles or filled-in verandahs where timber has been buried. Soil contact is desirable, but not essential depending on an assured water supply and security in its habitat.

Workers feed on wood, wood products, leaves, bark and grass. The cellulose of wood is digested by intestinal protozoa. The other castes are fed by the workers from oral and anal excretions. Protein is also required in the diet, which is usually supplied by fungi that decay wood and vegetation.

Coptotermes “acinaciformis” gets its name from the fact that the soldiers excrete formic acid from their mouths when they are threatened. This poses a problem for wiring in buildings infested with this species. These are most widely distributed timber pest in Australia, accounting for more than 70% of the serious damage to buildings in New South Wales. A single colony may consist of more than one million termites.

The destruction caused by these species is unprecedented. Our product Termirepel™ is ideal solution for this problem. Termirepel ™ is a non-toxic, eco-friendly insect and pest aversive. It is a broad spectrum aversive, designed for protection against termites but is effective against a multitude of other insects and pests.

It is used against Termites of all classes successfully. It can be incorporated into polymeric application in terms of masterbatches and can also be used to give a coating as it is available in liquid as well as lacquer form. The lacquer form can easily be used to coat a wooden product as these species clearly target timber and its derivatives.

Termirepel™ has unique qualities, it does not leach out of the end application, it can withstand high temperatures, it does not kill the target species i.e. termites and last but not the least it is one of the answers to our deteriorating environment: It is ECOFRIENDLY.

 

 

 

 

Root maggots are the immature stage, or larvae, of small flies that belong to the insect order Diptera i.e. flies and the family Anthomyiidae. Root maggots occur worldwide. They are short-lived insects. Maggots are not particularly large creatures; their maximum length being 1/4^th of an inch. The maggots are – cream colored, elongate with the head end pointed. Root maggots thrive in organic matter.

Root maggots constitute the most serious annually recurring insect pest problem of vegetable production. They attack all varieties of crucifiers. When root maggot larvae feed on root crops such as turnip, rutabaga and radish, they leave surface scars and feeding tunnels thus literally scarring the plant. Any feeding scars may render the produce unacceptable for market thus causing severe losses. The root is severely damaged. Feeding tunnels make the plant vulnerable to infection by soft-rot bacteria and to secondary infestation by springtails and thrips. Feeding by root maggot larvae on the stem, leaf and flowering crucifers like cauliflower, broccoli, cabbage, brussels sprouts and kohlrabi results in severe decline in the health of the plant. Young plants may be girdled and may die. Root systems in older plants may be extensively damaged and the tap root may be destroyed completely.

Root maggots attack different crops like cabbage, onion, canola, etc. They are named based on the crops that they target as canola root maggot, cabbage root maggot, onion root maggot, etc.

The cabbage maggot, Delia radicum, is a sporadic pest of many Cole crops including cabbage, broccoli, cauliflower, brussel sprouts, turnips, radishes, and other crops of the mustard family. Occasionally, they attack other vegetables such as beet and celery. When cabbage maggots emerge, they immediately start feeding on the roots of the host plant seedlings. Plants are more susceptible to cabbage maggots during a wet, cold spring with most of the damage limited to the early spring plantings. Injury from the second generation in late June or July is usually not severe because the maggots prefer cool, moist conditions and younger, tender plants. Maggots feed on the root hair and can create extensive, slimy tunnels on the root surface and throughout the roots. Larvae feed on roots and tunnel into the taproot, producing brown streaks on the root. The lower leaves of infested plants often turn yellow, with severe damage resulting in arrested plant growth. Feeding damage may also promote disease, causing further stress on the plant. Root maggots and root disease often show up together in the same field.

Severe root maggot damage can occur in fields with back to back canola plantations if crop rotation is not followed. Based on average canola prices, the yield losses quantified in the study were equivalent to $108-$140 per acre after only three years of continuous canola. In canola, severe maggot infestations can cause plant wilting, stunting and reduced flowering, decreased seed weight, and lower seed yields. If feeding tunnels are extensive and girdle the root, plant lodging and death can occur. Roots damaged by these maggots are more susceptible to invasion by root pathogens such as Fusarium than intact roots. Yield reductions of the range of 50 and 19 percent from root maggot damage for crops of Brassica rapa L. and B. napus L., respectively, have been reported. In a four-year survey conducted by a team of scientists, of nearly 3000 canola fields across Western Canada, the greatest degree of damage over the largest area was found in central, western and northwestern Alberta, although localized areas with severely damaged roots occurred along the northern edge of the entire Parkland  eco region. Soil type can play a part in the degree of root maggot infestation of canola.

The onion maggot (Delia antiqua) is one of the most destructive insect pests of onions and related plants. Injured seedlings wilt and die. Larger bulbs may survive some injury but are often poor keepers. Once onion maggots infest an area, they seem to be a problem every year. White onion varieties are more susceptible to attack than other varieties. Stunted or wilting onion plants are the first signs of onion maggot damage. At this time, you may find the maggots in putrid, decomposing onion plants. Light infestations may not kill onions but may make them more susceptible to rots. Onions of all sizes may be attacked, especially in the fall, when cooler weather favors the maggot’s activity. Damaged onions are not marketable and will rot in storage causing other onions to rot.

Let us look at the following news article about root maggot damage.

Continuous canola can lead to root maggot damage


CONTINUAL DROP Study finds drop in yields significant 
after first year


Posted Oct. 5th, 2012

If your rotation is canola, snow, and canola again, you’re setting yourself up for a root maggot infestation.


Insects love it when you grow the same crop year after year, and root maggots and canola are no exception, University of Alberta entomologist Lloyd Dosdall told attendees at a recent Alberta Canola industry update seminar.


Dosdall was part of a research team that examined how canola rotation — or the lack of it — affects crop damage, yield and seed quality. The study examined 13 different treatments done across Western Canada at five different sites from 2008 to 2011.


Several sites were continuously cropped with canola, while others had a canola-wheat-canola rotation or only had canola in one of the three years. At the end of the season, researchers examined root damage to determine the severity of root maggot infestation.


“The damage to canola that was grown continuously was more severe than when canola was rotated,” said Dosdall.


Root maggot larvae overwinter in soil and the study found the damage they cause increased every year.


“We had the highest yields in the first year of continuous canola, and then they just dropped down significantly in the following two years,” he said.


Dosdall said the loss from continuous cropping ranged from a loss of $280 to $380 per hectare.

The above article suggests that crop rotation is one way of preventing root maggot infestation. But crop rotation is not always desirable or economical. In such circumstances the crucifers don’t stand a chance. This is so because there are no insecticides available to treat root maggots; unbelievably so! This presents before us a huge problem. In these trying times Termirepel™ a product by C Tech Corporation can provide us with the necessary relief. Termirepel™ can be broadly defined as a non-toxic and non-hazardous termite aversive. But it is also highly effective against a multitude of other insects and pests. Termirepel™ in the form of an atomized spray can be used as a new age insecticide but in this case explicitly non-hazardous and environment friendly. Also Termirepel™ is available in the form of solid masterbatch which can be incorporated in drip irrigation pipes during polymer processing. The unique feature of this product is that it acts by a mechanism of repellence and does not kill the target species.

 

 

 

 

 

One of the major crop pests found in Asia is the gall midge. The gall midge is a small fly that lays its eggs in flower buds. When the eggs hatch, tiny worm-like larvae emerge that damage the young bud, causing it to fall to the ground. There are various types of gall midges that damage particular target species. The rose midge infests young buds and shoots of roses and is a serious pest in greenhouse. Some other serious pests are the wheat midge, sorghum midge, rice midge, clover midge, and pear midge.

The larvae of these pests cause severe crop damage during the vegetative stages by producing tube-like ‘silver shoot’ or ‘onion leaf’ galls that prevent panicle production. Severe yield losses are reported due to these pests that vary significantly depending on the climatic zone, ecosystem and level of cropping intensification. In the face of increasing human population and rapidly growing demand for food grains, the alleviation of insect-induced food-grain losses has to be tackled to ensure food security of the large number of people in Africa who depend on crops. The damage due to these pests can also kill individual shoots. Repeated attacks can cause brooming, a proliferation of shoots at the ends of the twig and disfigured growth. Besides reducing the yield, the damage is unsightly and can lower the aesthetic value of ornamental trees.

Losses as high as 25–80% in farmers’ crops have been recorded in some fields. The larvae attack the growing points of tillers and cause the leaf sheath tissues to form a tube-like structure called a ‘silver shoot gall’ that resembles an onion leaf. Early gall infestation results in stunting, bushy appearance of the plant, with as many as 50 small tillers per hill. In Orissa, India, yield losses due to the gall midges ranged from 0.06 to 1.1% for every unit percent increase in silver shoots. Another trial reported that infestation was reduced to 19% as compared with 39.6%. It was reported that the presence of even 5% silver shoots decreased yields by 37%. Blueberry gall midge occurs sporadically, but when present, they can cause reductions of 20 to 80% flower buds or fruit.

The below article would better explain the damage caused by these pests.

Cereal crops at risk of saddle gall midge attack

 21 December 2012

Not all of the limitations and threats facing the UK wheat crop are familiar and established ones, Caroline Nicholls, HGCA research and knowledge transfer manager told the HGCA Agronomists’ Conference.

Outlining the HGCA-funded research on saddle gall midge, she said: “During the past three summers, we have been working with cereal growers to identify the extent of the threat posed by saddle gall midge, which before 2010 had been relatively unknown in the UK since the last significant damage was reported in the 1970s.”

The pest was generally more prevalent in central and northern Europe. The early stages make themselves apparent in the form of red-orange larvae in the soil, and red/orange eggs later lay mainly on the younger leaves of wheat plants.

Once hatched, the larvae can be seen by peeling away the leaf sheath beneath the saddle-like galls that become apparent on the stems. The biggest impact of these is the node decay they cause.

“Since 2011, we have been working with ADAS, AICC, Dow AgroSciences and cereal growers to produce a review of the pest’s biology and a strategy for control. Crops most at risk are those where stem extension coincides with larval feeding, particularly in late and spring-sown wheat and barley. Heavy land and under-continuous cereals are also affected,” said Ms Nicholls.

Information is available from HGCA on identification and control, with early sowing and the wider use of break crops among the key factors in regularly affected areas.

There are no insecticide label recommendations for control of saddle gall midge, but organo-phosphates and pyrethroids have been shown to give good control.

Application timing is crucial, though – treatment must be made before the larvae move beneath the leaf sheath.

Chemical control of this pest is not a viable control option because the destructive larval stages live within the plant. Use of unnecessary synthetic insecticides increases the risk of disturbing the natural ecological balance. Thus we need a solution which would effectively keep the gall midge population in check, keeping them away from our crops, while at the same time not having any negative impact on the environment.

C Tech Corporation offers a product called Termirepel™, which is a non-toxic, non-hazardous, environmentally safe insect repellent. It can repel more than 500 species of insects on account of it being a broad spectrum anti-insect repellent. The most striking feature of Termirepel™ is that it neither kills the target species, nor the non-target species. It will simply keep the insects away from the application. This product is available in masterbatch and lacquer form, and as a liquid solution. Termirepel™ can be added in mulches or incorporated in agricultural bags and films, which could be used to keep our grains safe and guarded against the pesky gall midges!

The Queensland fruit fly (Bactrocera tryoni) is a species of tephritid fruit fly native to Australia. There are over 250 species of fruit fly in the family Tephritidae which occur in Australia but only about ten are pests. Adult flies are about seven millimetres long and are reddish-brown in color, with distinct yellow marking. QFF (Queensland Fruit Fly) is different from the small dark brown drosophila flies that hang around ripe and decaying fruit. Drosophila flies are not agricultural pests but can be a nuisance where fruit and vegetables are stored. It is a widely acknowledged and feared pest in the agriculture and horticulture industry.

The fruit fly is native to eastern Queensland and north-eastern New South Wales.  The ready availability of suitable hosts and habitat in urban and horticultural production areas in Queensland, Northern Territory, New South Wales and Victoria in Australia has enabled the fly to expand its natural range. It attacks a wide range of host plants, lowering production and making fruit inedible. This can have severe consequences for local and international trade.

The fruit fly causes damage in the larval stage as well as the adult stage. The female fly has a retractable, needle-sharp egg-laying organ (ovipositor) at the tip of her abdomen. Using the ovipositor she digs a flask-shaped chamber about 3 mm deep in the outer layer of the fruit where up to 12 eggs are laid at a time.

 The fly lays eggs in maturing and ripe fruit on trees and sometimes in fallen fruit. The maggots (larvae) hatch and the fruit is destroyed by the feeding maggots and by associated fruit decay. The fly can attack a wide range of fruit, fruiting vegetables and native fruiting plants. Evidence of the fly activity is sometimes seen as puncture marks in the skin of fruit. The stings are where the female fruit fly has laid her eggs. Sting marks may appear as brown spots on persimmons, apples and pears or small holes that may become small raised lumps in citrus and avocado. They are most active in warm humid conditions and after rain. The flies might be seen walking on the undersides of leaves or on maturing fruit. They readily take flight if disturbed.

There have been innumerable fruit fly outbreaks in the recent history. An outbreak however small in intensity spells huge losses for the horticulture industry as thousands of fruits growers are affected. They attack a host of fruit trees like apple, apricot, blackberry, cashew, etc. Bananas are said to be attacked only when overripe, and other fruits, such as grapes, are attacked only in peak years.

In Napa County a hub of olive growers, the meddling fruit fly has caused severe damage as reported in a leading newspaper. An ardent horticulturist Chris Craiker, owner of Corlyone Olive Oyl in Browns Valley, said the infestation had hit his orchards hard in 2013, as he estimated a loss of 40 to 50 percent of his crop to the fruit fly infestation.

He said he usually grows about 1,000 to 1,500 pounds of olives, but had to discard the entire crop rather than sort the healthy fruit from the infected fruit.

Let us look at the following recent news article regarding the return of these devastating insects.

Fruit fly makes growers ‘nervous as hell’

By Mike Barrington – NORTHERN ADVOCATE

9:25 AM Friday Jan 24, 2014

A single male Fruit Fly found in the Hatea Drive area of Whangarei. Photo / Ron Burgin

The discovery of a male Queensland fruit fly in Whangarei has sparked a major biosecurity alert.

Up to 50 Ministry for Primary Industries (MPI) staff was in the city and another 50 in Wellington were preparing yesterday to deal with the pest threatening New Zealand’s $4 billion horticulture industry.

The fly was found in the front yard of a home near the Whangarei Town Basin on Tuesday. It was collected from an insect trap MPI had placed there as part of its national fruit flies surveillance program involving 7400 traps around the country.

MPI staff yesterday put up signs banning people from taking whole fresh fruit and vegetables out of a 200m zone circling the place where the fly was found. Bins have been provided for residents to dump fruit and vegetables rather than disposing of them with other household rubbish.

Today MPI officials will begin putting about 200 pheromone traps into fruit trees in that zone and within a 1.5km radius of the discovery site extending up to the Regent, along Riverside Dr and into Parihaka.

An MPI mobile laboratory arrived in Whangarei yesterday for use analyzing fallen fruit and vegetables to be gathered from the two zones.

Queensland fruit fly is one of the most damaging fruit fly pests because it infests more than 100 species of fruit. Some countries will not import fruit and vegetables from sources where the fly is known to exist.

MPI deputy director general compliance and response Andrew Coleman said yesterday that New Zealand’s trading partners had been notified of the Whangarei find and measures were under way to find out if there is an infestation.

If no further evidence of fruit flies was found within a fortnight then overseas markets would accept the insect was alone, he said.

When the Northern Advocate asked whether the location of the fruit fly found in Whangarei indicated the insect had arrived in one of the many overseas yachts berthed at the Town Basin, Mr. Coleman said it may have done.

“But we may never know how it got here,” he said, explaining that the fruit fly life cycle involved a pupae development period in the ground.

The pheromone traps containing female fruit fly sex scent are expected to detect any males. If an infestation was found, ground spraying would be carried out to eradicate the invaders.

Minister of Primary Industries Nathan Guy and MPI chief executive officer Martyn Dunn were in Whangarei yesterday to see the fruit fly measures being imposed and for talks with Whangarei MP Phil Heatley, Mayor Sheryl Mai and top Northland Regional Council officials.

Mr. Heatley said later the minister had assured Whangarei people there would be no aerial spraying such as the Ministry of Agriculture and Forestry carried out with the insecticide Foray 48B over parts of Auckland from January 2002 to May 2004 to eradicate another exotic pest, the painted apple moth.

Kerikeri Fruit growers’ Association chairman Rick Curtis said growers in his area were “nervous as hell”.

“They are watching and hoping the male fly found was alone,” he said.

Fruit fly facts:

• The Queensland fruit fly is a native of Australia where it is considered to be the country’s most serious insect pest of fruit and vegetable crops.
• Air and sea passengers are prohibited from bringing fresh fruit and vegetables into New Zealand.
• Fruit flies eat ripened fruit and vegetables. Eggs which female fruit flies lay on fruit hatch into larvae which find dark places where they grow six legs and wings before emerging as adults.
• Larvae of fruit flies develop in moist areas where organic material and standing water are present. The entire life cycle lasts 25 days or more depending on the environmental conditions and the availability of food.

Thus these flies are notorious pests which affect the horticulture industry reigning in losses to the tune of billions of dollars. Let us see what has been done conventionally to deal with these pests. The fly has been the subject of extensive control regimes including a Fruit Fly Exclusion Zone where it is forbidden to take fruit, and post-harvest dipping of fruit in dimethoate and fenthion. Now dimethoate and fenthion are interesting chemicals. They are basically organophosphates. Dimethoate is a widely used organophosphate insecticide used to kill insects on contact. Fenthion is an organothiophosphate insecticide, avicide, and acaricide. Since both the above chemicals are extremely toxic and hazardous to the human life due to their mode of action targeting the central nervous system, their use was under review by the Australian Pesticides and Veterinary Medicines Authority (APVMA), with dimethoate suspended from use.

In effect we still have outbreaks of fruit fly infestations with almost no means of controlling them. Termirepel™ a product by C Tech Corporation is a promising alternative solution. Termirepel™ is a non-toxic, non-hazardous insect and pest repellant. Primarily designed to be used as a termite aversive, it is highly effective against a host of other insects and pests. It works by the mechanism of repellence by which it ensures that the target insect or pest stays away from the application without resorting to killing it. Termirepel™ is available in liquid form which can be used in the form of a spray. Also, the masterbatch form can be incorporated in agricultural films.

 

 

A rapidly growing species of termite has invaded the U.S. This species, scientific name Nasutitermes corniger, was nicknamed the “Conehead Termite” because of the distinctive cone-shaped head.

First discovered in Florida in 2001, this highly adaptable termite nests in or on—and happily consumes—trees, shrubs, roots, structures, fences, wooden furniture, scrap wood, paper products and probably many other items made of cellulose. It may build nests on open ground with no trees close by.

This challenging species has tremendous potential for swift dispersal, survival in a variety of structural and natural habitats across a broad geographic range, and decisive economic impacts. There is a sense of urgency to act now to halt and hopefully eradicate this exotic species because if it spreads further and becomes irreversibly established in the United States, it could become a powerful, damaging, expensive, obnoxious, and permanent pest.

Originally called “tree termites,” they were renamed cone head termites to alleviate the misconception that this pest is only found in trees. Though the species was believed to have been eradicated in the U.S. in 2003, the Florida Department of Agriculture and Consumer Services (DACS) recently confirmed the reemergence of this pest in Broward County, Florida.

Unlike most termites, the conehead termite does not rely on underground tunneling to travel. Instead, they forage on the ground like ants, allowing them to spread quickly. They build dark brown “mud” tubes and freestanding nests on the ground, in trees or in wooden structures. The nests can be up to 3 feet in diameter and have a hard surface of chewed wood.

Conehead termites are an extremely aggressive termite species known for causing widespread property damage in a short period of time. These species need to be controlled to stop this destruction from spreading, or else millions of dollars in damage can be expected. Let’s have a look at the following article.

Cone heads invade South Florida

BY DAVID FLESHLER (MCCLATCHY NEWSPAPERS)

Published: December 20, 2012

FORT LAUDERDALE, Fla. – A dangerous Caribbean termite that’s consuming trees, walls and ceilings in Dania Beach, Fla., will be the target of a renewed eradication campaign, with state officials saying this may be their last chance before the species spreads through South Florida.

The Nasutitermes corniger, or cone head termite, whose bizarre behavior includes constructing above-ground nests the size of beach balls and digging visible brown tunnels up the sides of houses, first turned up in Dania Beach in 2001. Agriculture officials thought they eradicated it, but it turned up again last year, and despite the aggressive use of pesticides on nests and feeding tunnels, it keeps showing up.

Pest control professionals, scientists and the Florida Department of Agriculture met in Dania Beach last week to implement a new eradication strategy before the arrival of the spring flight season, when the termites fly off to find new colonies, threatening to spread the range of the wood-eating insects.

“Certainly all of South Florida could be at risk, up into Central Florida,” said Barbara Thorne, professor of entomology at the University of Maryland, who is helping plan the campaign. “Once this gets out, there will be no containing it, ever. So we’re trying to deal with this now.”

State officials had announced an apparent success against the termite in May, saying they had sprayed 47 sites over a square mile west of Interstate 95 in Dania Beach and found no evidence of live nests. But they also said they would be surveying the area indefinitely, and their surveys found new hotspots spreading out from the area of original infestation.

“We’re still getting activity in the area we treated,” said Steven Dwinell, assistant director of the Florida Department of Agriculture’s Division of Agricultural Environmental Services. “We weren’t as successful as we’d hoped.”

Allen Fugler, executive vice president of the Florida Pest Management Association, which organized the meeting along with the Association of Structural Pest Control Regulatory Officials, said the initial priority will be to come up with a strategy to prevent them from spreading in spring.

“We’re going to look for something as a stopgap before the start of the season,” he said. “Eradication is very difficult.”

The Department of Agriculture is asking the Legislature for $200,000 to hire two full-time workers to seek and destroy termite colonies in Dania Beach. Mr. Dwinell said the initial discussions with pest control professionals suggested the new campaign will involve them more heavily.

This is the worst kind of fear. The fear, of infestation by foreign species in your beloved land.  There has to be some way to surpass this problem. Mankind has come up with creative solutions for each and every roadblock faced by them. So for this particular problem we, at C Tech Corporation have come up with a viable solution.

Termirepel™ is an aversive for termites and insects. It is non-toxic, non-hazardous and environment friendly repellent which works even against the most aggressive insects.

Combirepel™ is also a non-toxic, non-hazardous and environment friendly product that repels both termites as well as rodents. Combirepel™ WP ( wood protection) is designed as a single eco friendly treatment to treat wood from fungi, rodents, termites and many other insects including Conehead.

These products work on the mechanism of repellence and do not kill the target species, thus keeping in accordance with the need of the hour i.e. sustainability. This green chemistry based wonder product can give even the harshest of termites a run for their home, literally speaking.

 

 

“Trees are our best friends. They play a very important role in our life. We cannot live without them. They purify the air we breathe. They give us timber, paper and firewood. Timber is used in making houses, train compartments, big boxes, tools etc.” Such many qualities of trees were thought to us in our school which made us realize the importance of trees. These trees which are an important part of human life and one of the necessities for our survival have many enemies in the surrounding. The billions and trillions of insects are present in our ecosystem which cause damage and destroy trees and plants. One among these enemies is red pine scales.

Red pine scale is an invasive insect found throughout southern New England, New York, New Jersey and eastern Pennsylvania. It was identified in New Hampshire in fall 2012 at Bear Brook State Park. Most likely it was introduced in the US on exotic pines planted at the NY World’s Fair in 1939.

The red pine scale has two generations per year. Adult females are brownish red and wingless. Pre-adult males resemble females but are smaller and soon after emergence become true winged adults inside a waxy cocoon. Although adult males are winged they do not fly. The summer generation lay their eggs in early spring and these mature in early August to lay the next Fall generation. First stage larvae resemble adult females but are smaller and transform into an intermediate legless stage. The fall generation overwinters as first stage crawlers under bark scales and become adults the following spring. The females generally lay an average of 262 eggs

The attack by the red pine scales is identified by the foliage changing color slowly from light green to yellow to red appearing first on individual branches on the lower part of the crown then gradually over the entire crown. Masses of cottony white filaments become visible on the branches when infestations are heavy. Weakened trees may also be attacked by bark beetles causing rapid tree mortality.

The red pine scales mostly make red pine their victims. But they are also known to attack Japanese black pine and Chinese pine. The red pine scales are one of the most important insect pests of red pine in the Northeast, USA. In 1971 in US thousands of tress ranging from nursery stock to mature trees were killed. Many more were severely injured and did not survive when attacked by secondary borer. Red pine is one of the most extensively planted trees in the northern U.S. and Canada. It is used for windbreaks, erosion control, and wood products. Red pine needles are 4 to 6 inches long, and occur in bundles of 2.

These insects are still at large and cause considerable damage to trees. Let take a look at the following article,

Insect that’s killing red pines in Mass. appears to have hit Hingham

A stand of spiny, brown pine trees poking out above the George Washington Town Forest could be evidence of an exotic insect that has already felled hundreds of acres of red pines throughout Massachusetts.

Ken Gooch, director of the Department of Conservation’s Forest Health Program, said the trees appear to have been hit by matsucoccus resinosae, also known as the red pine scale, a small insect that has been slowly spreading north from New Jersey since the 1960s. Gooch made the determination after reviewing photographs of the Hingham trees taken by a Patriot Ledger photographer Thursday.

Gooch said the red pine scale can wreak havoc on the trees it infests, sometimes killing them in as little as two or three years. New Hampshire park officials began harvesting red pine plantations on 118 acres of Bear Brook State Park in February in an effort to contain the insects, which were first discovered in the state last summer.

“Once the scale gets in there, it’s really quick,” Gooch said.

Gooch said the red pine scale was responsible for killing just over 500 acres of trees in Massachusetts last year alone, with much of the damage occurring around Middleboro. When he conducted an aerial survey of Eastern Massachusetts this spring, he spotted three new stands hit by the bugs.

Gooch said the scales mostly target non-native red pines that were brought to the region by the Civilian Conservation Corps in the 1930s. The insects can only be seen under a microscope and largely rely on birds to carry them from one stand of red pines to another.

The conventionally used pesticides are no longer an effective solution for this problem as the new generations of the red pine scales has developed the resistance to hazardous pesticides. An effective solution should be adopted to ensure that our trees are protected from such vile species. Termirepel™ a non-toxic, non-hazardous and environment friendly product is highly efficient and effective in combating pests like red pine scales. Termirepel™ is a broad spectrum aversive repelling more than 500 species of insects like termites, ants, bugs etc. It is available in lacquer and solution form which can be mixed with paints and applied as coatings on the bark of the trees to protect them the pests.

Remembering the importance of the trees and their need for our survival, use of a solution like Termirepel™ to protect trees is the need of the hour.

Everyone dreams of buying and owning their own house. We spend years dreaming about and saving for a home where we can raise a family, and come home to after a hard day at work. No doubt, it’s a huge responsibility, but it is one which we are more than ready to take. It’s like a dream come true when we finally start living in our own house, a result of our hard work and years of planning. And once we’re in our dream home, we don’t want to have to worry about that dream being reduced to dust. However, one teeny, tiny insect that has the ability to cause many a sleepless night is the termite. Nothing strikes fear into a homeowner’s heart quite like termites.

Termites are the cause of billions of dollars in damages each year. According to the National Pest Management Association, about $5 billion dollars a year is caused by termite damage in the U.S. alone. Termite damage is not only expensive but it’s also difficult to fix. They can chew holes in our furniture, support beams, all studs and floor joints, and also do damage to our foundation. What’s worse is quite often we don’t even know they’re there until the damage has already been done. Known as “silent destroyers,” termites often do their damage from the inside out. Some signs of termites include cracked paint on wood surfaces, sawdust piles, hollow-sounding wood, discarded wings, and mud tubes leading to the foundation of our home. Because these signs are so subtle, it can be really hard to identify a termite problem before it becomes a full-blown termite infestation. Termites move in looking for food and because our home is built out of their food source, it’s a goldmine for them!

Termites have been around for a very long time and are one of the most successful and prolific species on the planet. Worldwide, the destructive insects cause roughly $40 billion a year in damages to homes and other wooden structures! Termites are active 24 hours a day, seven days a week, silently feeding on the cellulose found in our wooden articles. Termites are present in 70% of countries across the world and outnumber humans 10 to 1! And the worst part? Most pest infestations and accompanying damage are considered maintenance issues by insurance carriers. In other words, the insurance company’s position is that you could have prevented the mishap by eradicating the pesky bugs before they ate you out of home! Thus the poor homeowner has to pay for all the repairs. Considering the population of termites today, and the extent of damage they cause, a homeowner may well be on his way to bankruptcy!

The below article, published on an incident on termite damage would highlight the graveness of this issue.

Termites chewing up Kitchener’s Laurentian Hills neighbourhood

Posted: Aug 12, 2014

Residents in Kitchener’s Laurentian Hills area are battling a termite colony that has taken up residence in their back yards and are asking for the city’s help to battle the bugs.

The termites are chewing apart trees, sheds, fences and even people’s homes. 

“It’s something that will eventually spread to the rest of the city if it isn’t addressed in the near future,” said Stephen Dewar, whose house is affected by termites. 

On Monday, he asked city councillors to help him and his neighbours fight the invasion.

“Right now it’s contained to a city block, so it hasn’t crossed the road yet. All the houses that are affected either about each other or back on to each other,” said Dewar. 

The infestation in Laurentian Hills is confined to one block of 23 homes, essentially a rectangular island of homes on Briargate Drive and Greenock Drive. In that block, 20 homes were infected and seven of those homes have already been treated for termites.  

Dewar said he discovered the infestation in the spring, after the city inspector found termite evidence on his property. At the time, he learned that some of his neighbours had known about termites in the area for as long as three years. 

Dewar said there is a bylaw that requires him to have his property treated by a professional exterminator within 30 days or he will face a fine from the city. 

“They basically told us it’s the homeowner’s responsibility,” he said. 

But Dewar said the exterminators he approached told him they could only use chemicals that work as repellents to try to keep the termites out of his house. The exterminators wouldn’t be able to kill the colony, because the chemicals that can be legally used in Ontario won’t kill the insects. 

“So the problem isn’t going to go away, and in fact it’s likely to spread to the rest of the city,” said Dewar. 

Dewar said it would cost between $2,000 to $5,000 to treat the outside of his property, and from $5,000 to $8,000 – or more – to treat the inside of his property. The treatment is only good for one year, he said. 

Dewar has asked city staff to look into new ways to get rid of the termite colony, not to enforce the bylaw and to offer financial help to people in the Laurentian Hills who are dealing with the termites. 

Council on Monday decided to continue enforcing the bylaw, but will consider offering financial assistance to the homeowners.

“We have to look holistically, though, not just at this issue but at rats and the infestation of emerald ash borer, other potential infestations as well,” said Coun. Dan Glenn-Graham.

“We can’t afford to support this kind of long-term funding,” he told council. 

“Because if we were to do it for some, we have to be willing to do it for all.”

Although many people think termites have only negative impacts, in nature, they make many positive contributions to the world’s ecosystems. Their greatest contribution is the role they play in recycling wood and plant material. Their tunneling efforts also help to ensure that soils remain porous, contain nutrients, and are healthy enough to support plant growth. Thus, what we need to look for is an answer which would help solve the problem of termite infestation, while at the same time not harming the termites in any way. Sounds impossible, doesn’t it? C Tech Corporation provides precisely that!

One of the three niche products offered by C Tech Corporation- Termirepel™ is a non-toxic and non-hazardous insect repellent, specially designed for protection against termites. Since we aim at providing solutions which would have the least impact on the species, Termirepel™ only repels the insect species from the application; it does not kill them or harm them in any way. Being a broad spectrum aversive, this product works against almost 500 species of unwanted pests and insects. The best feature of this product is that it is completely environment-friendly, i.e. Termirepel™ is not only safe for the target species; it is completely safe for the humans and environment too! This product is available in the masterbatch, lacquer form and as a liquid solution. In lacquer form, Termirepel™ can be coated on the surfaces in the attic or other such places which could successfully keep the pesky bugs at bay.

Although we may never be completely rid of these damaging termites, with proper safe preventive measures, such as using Termirepel™ for protecting our surfaces, we may be able to limit our exposure to their predations.

Banana skipper (Erionota thrax) butterfly is from South East Asia, where the caterpillars (larvae) cause the major damage to infested plants. This pest is also known as the banana leaf roller or palm redeye. After hatching, the caterpillars move towards the outer edge of the leaf where they feed and roll the leaf to make a shelter. Within the roll the larva secretes a protective, white, waxy covering. The feeding and rolling destroys the leaves, significantly reducing the plant’s leaf area and leading to reduced fruit production, as well as preventing the use of the leaves for traditional purposes. The adult female lays small yellow eggs in batches of 12–25 on lower leaf sides, from which the caterpillars emerge. Caterpillars roll up banana leaf sections and eat the leaves as they grow. They also exude a fine white powdery material over their body. Adult butterflies are brown with three yellow-white areas at the front of their wings. They have a wingspan of around 7cm.

Banana skipper butterflies have brown bodies with large heads, large red eyes and thickened, curved antennae tips. Each wing is 31-37 mm wide, with three yellow areas on the forewings. Banana skipper butterflies are called skipper butterflies due to their fast, darting flight movements. They are attracted to light.

The skipper larvae are present in the rolled-up sections of leaves. Unroll the leaf curls and check for the presence of the caterpillars and/or their white powdery covering. Banana skipper caterpillars damage banana plants by feeding on and rolling up the leaves. The caterpillars can damage 60% of the plant leaf area. Leaf damage lowers banana yields due to delayed fruit maturity and reduced bunch size. The adult butterflies are most active in the early evening and are not commonly seen.

Banana skipper is currently widespread in South East Asia, and is also found in Papua New Guinea, Mauritius, Guam and Hawaii. They were particularly devastating to banana crops in Papua New Guinea in the 1980s. Its close proximity to northern Australia is a concern to the Australian banana industry.

Banana skipper butterfly infests cultivated and wild bananas (Musaceae). They can spread longer distances as eggs on the leaves of infested banana propagation material or as undetected butterflies on boats, vehicles or aircraft.

Let’s take a look at the following article on the damage done by banana skipper;

Banana farmers reel under ‘butterfly’ attack

NANDAKUMAR, July 7, 2014

 Scientists at the Kerala Agricultural University have called for heightened vigil against a new and devastating pest that threatens to blight banana crops in the State.

The pest, identified as the Banana Skipper or Palm Redeye (Erionota thrax), is a chocolate-brown butterfly belonging to the family Hesperidae. It is also known as Banana Leaf Roller because its larva or caterpillar cuts the leaves at the edges and makes a series of cylindrical rolls before developing into a pupa. A heavy infestation could damage the whole banana leaf, leaving only the midrib intact.

According to Dr. Arthur Jacob, Professor and Head of the KAU’s instructional farm at Vellayani near here, the pest was reported last year from different locations in the State. He said the damage was now found to be spreading to the southern parts, especially Thiruvananthapuram, a major producer of banana. The infestation has been found to be heavy in a few banana farms at Kalliyoor, Kakkamoola and Pallichal near Vellayani.

Originally reported from Southeast Asia, the banana leaf roller pest is distributed in Northeast India, Sikkim, Nepal, the Andaman islands, Mauritius, Malaysia, China, Vietnam, Hawaii and Papua New Guinea. Measuring 4 to 6 cm in length, the white powder-coated caterpillar prefers banana leaves though it is occasionally found to infest coconut palms also.

Citing reports from other countries, Dr. Arthur said natural control was the best remedy. The introduction of natural parasites has been advocated to bring the damage under control.

An expert team of the KAU has advised farmers to be vigilant against the spread of the pest. The scientists have called for field scouting and periodic destruction of the rolled leaves by burning to kill the larvae. “Chemical control measures are seldom required, but if the manual removal of the leaf rolls is not possible, treatments timed to control the newly hatched larvae may be attempted with the backing of field studies,” Dr. Arthur said.

To tackle the problem various methods have been tried and tested without any success. The conventional toxic chemicals have become obsolete and are no longer effective in protecting the tress from the attack of these vile pests. Unlike these chemicals, C Tech Corporation’s product Termirepel™ is the best solution to deal with the problem of these pests. Termirepel™ is non-toxic, non-hazardous and environment friendly aversive product. It is a broad spectrum aversive which works against 500 species of insects including ash borer. Termirepel™ is available in liquid form which can be mixed with paints and applied on the tree trunk. It can also be sprayed in the area surrounding the tress to keep the ash borers at bay. The high point of Termirepel™ is that it does not kill the species but efficiently repels them.

Found in a rainbow of North American plants from avocados to beans, onions, citrus trees and market flowers, thrips are tiny insects. These species that are plant feeders can scar leaf, flower or fruit surfaces with silvery speckling when they puncture and suck out the cell’s content. Conversely, heavy pest populations can severely distort flowers and damage fruit. Other thrip species function as beneficial insects by eating mites, fungal spores and pollen.

When thrips have fed on a bud, it will often fail to open; or if it does open, the flower will be deformed. Flowers upon which the thrips feed may also become streaked and/or discolored. When thrips feed on plant leaves, the leaves will dry out and appear speckled with silvery flakes. The leaves will eventually wilt and fall off.

To lay its eggs, the female thrip will make a slit in a leaf then lay 25 to 50 eggs within it. The eggs can develop into adults within three weeks, or sooner for some species. Many species of thrips also reproduce asexually. They can produce many generations in a single season.

In addition to damaging and feeding on plants, thrips are known to bite humans. They can cause both skin and respiratory irritation to people, according to the University of Michigan, particularly to workers in fields where infestations exist.

Thrips are small insects, only about 1/20″, but they can cause a lot of damage. At maturity, they are yellowish or blackish with fringed wings.  Nymphs have a similar shape but lack the wings. They are usually yellowish to white. Thrips are poor flyers. As a result, damage often occurs in one part of the plant then slowly spreads throughout it.

Thrips feed in buds, folded leaves, and other unexposed areas of plants. This makes them difficult to treat with an insecticide. They feed by sucking juices from the plant causing stippling, or small scars, on leaves, flowers and fruit. This results in stunting of the plant, leaf distortion and premature leaf drop. Flowers may be deformed and fail to open properly. Petals may show brown streaks and spots. Their excrement is black and shiny, which may be a clue to their presence.  In addition to this physical damage, thrips also transmit tomato spotted wilt virus and impatiens necrotic spot virus, for which there is no control.

If enough thrips attack a plant, the leaves may take on a silver streaked appearance. When there is a large enough infestations of thrips, the plant can be severely damaged. Fruits will not be able to fully mature.

In many species, thrips feed within buds and furled leaves or in other enclosed parts of the plant. Their damage is often observed before the thrips are seen. Discolored or distorted plant tissue or black specks of feces around stippled leaf surfaces are clues that thrips are or were present. However, some abiotic disorders, pathogens, and certain other invertebrates can cause damage resembling that of thrips. For example, lace bugs, plant bugs, and mites also stipple foliage, and lace bugs and certain plant bugs produce dark, watery fecal specks. Look carefully for the insects themselves to be certain that pest thrips are present and the cause of damage before taking control action.

Thrips are poor fliers but can readily spread long distances by floating with the wind or being transported on infested plants. New thrips introductions can pose serious threats and complicate identification. A recent introduction of Klambothrips myopori has caused serious leaf and shoot galling damage to Myoporum laetum(ngaio tree) and Myoporum ‘Pacificum’ (a groundcover) along the coast of California. This thrips was both a new introduction and an undescribed species, so that initially not even the experts knew what to call it or how it might be managed. This species is now well established and from its original detection site in San Diego has spread north along the coast to at least as far as Santa Barbara. It is expected to continue to spread to wherever Myoporum species have been planted.

Thrips prefer to feed in rapidly growing tissue. Feeding by thrips typically causes tiny scars on leaves and fruit, called stippling, and can stunt growth. Damaged leaves may become papery and distorted. Infested terminals may discolor, become rolled, and drop leaves prematurely. Petals may exhibit “color break,” which is pale or dark discoloring of petal tissue that was killed by thrips feeding before buds opened. Thrips cause silvery to brownish, scabby scarring on the avocado and citrus fruit surface, but this cosmetic damage does not harm the internal fruit quality. Feces may remain on leaves or fruit long after thrips have left. Where thrips lay eggs on grapes, dark scars surrounded by lighter “halos” may be found on the fruit. Thrips feeding on raspberries, apples, and nectarines can deform or scar developing fruit; sugar pea pods may be scarred or deformed. Citrus thrips feeding severely distorts blueberry shoot tips and foliage, reducing fruit yield.

Western flower thrips are primarily pests of herbaceous plants, but high populations occasionally damage continuously- or late-blossoming flowers on woody plants such as roses. Some plant-feeding thrips are also predaceous on other pests, such as spider mites. In young cotton seedlings in California, western flower thrips is considered beneficial because it feeds on spider mites.

Behavior, body appearance, and host plants help to distinguish among thrips species. For example, three dark spots on each forewing distinguish the adult predaceous six spotted thrips from pest thrips. Adults of western flower thrips and onion thrips, are noticeably larger than avocado and citrus thrips adults, so mature body size helps to distinguish them when they occur together on the same host plant. However, thrips can be positively identified to species only by an expert. Fortunately, most thrips are susceptible to some of the same controls, such as exclusion and pesticides.

It is more important to distinguish among thrips species in situations where integrated pest management methods are used. For example, predatory thrips or other natural enemies are highly specific to certain pests and are likely to help control only certain species of plant-feeding thrips. Certain thrips occur on many different plants but damage only a few of the plant species on which they are found, so identifying the thrips species may reveal that it is harmless in that situation and no control action is needed. For example, avocado fruit skin is scarred by avocado thrips and greenhouse thrips, but citrus thrips and western flower thrips are harmless in avocado. Citrus thrips occurs on many species of plants but damages only blueberries and citrus.

Although thrips damage to leaves is unsightly, thrips activity does not usually warrant the use of insecticide sprays. For instance, while thrips damage on citrus or avocado fruit may look unpleasant, it does not harm trees or affect the internal fruit quality. When damage is noticed on ripening fruit or distorted terminals, the thrips that caused the injury are often gone. It’s not until later when tissue grows and expands that injury caused earlier becomes apparent. While viruses vectored by thrips may cause plant loss, insecticide sprays are not recommended to prevent viruses because thrips are not killed fast enough to prevent the transfer of the virus to new plants. Prevention of thrips infestations is the only way to prevent infection by thrips-vectored viruses.

This can readily by achieved by using C Tech Corporation patented product Termirepel™.

Termirepel™ is a non-toxic, non-hazardous broad spectrum insect aversive masterbatch which works not only against termites but a host of other insects including beetles, ticks, thirps etc. It has been incorporated in different kinds of films, cables and wires etc all over the world and is found to be effective against even the most aggressive insects. It is effective against a multitude of other insects including agricultural pests. It can be used for a number of applications including agricultural films, tarps, pipes, plastics, ducts, tubing and hosing, wires and cables, railways, aviation, mulches and the automobile sector.

For prevention from damage caused by Thirps, films incorporated with Termirepel™ can be used to cover the area or mulches can also be used to save the plants. Such films can also be wrapped around big fruits to prevent damage. All this can be done by just repelling the insect and not killing them. Thus, following the course of ecological balance and sustainability.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

An unwelcome guest has recently been plaguing the plant life in Pennsylvania. These are nothing but Spotted Laternflies, which are beautiful, colourful insects and might seem like any other nuisance bug; but which are can prove to be extremely dangerous. The invasive pest poses a threat to fruit orchards and grape vines, along with forests and the timber industry. It attacks trees by feeding on sap and harms them further by excreting large amounts of a fluid that coats leaves and stems and encourages the growth of mold, according to researchers.

The Spotted Lanternfly is about one inch long and a half-inch wide, and is native to China, India, Japan and Vietnam. The insect uses its “piercing and sucking mouthparts” to drain stems of sap while at the same time excreting a lot of liquid. Due to the sugar content of the liquid, plant parts covered with spotted lanternfly excretion harbor mold growth, which could hinder plant growth. This can reduce photosynthesis, weaken the plant, and eventually contribute to the plant’s death. In addition, feeding can cause the plant to ooze or weep. It’s described as a weak flyer but a “strong and quick jumper,” and it’s done some serious damage in Korea, where it was introduced in 2006; it has since attacked some 25 plant species that can also be found in Pennsylvania. Spotted lanternfly feeds on a variety of host plants including fruit trees, ornamental trees, woody trees, and vines.

This pest poses a significant threat to the state’s more than $20.5 million grape, nearly $134 million apple and more than $24 million stone fruit industries. Pine and hardwood logging in Pennsylvania also accounts for $12 billion in sales. The damage caused by this pest is so much so that around 5 Pennsylvania townships and 2 boroughs are on high alert after the state Department of Agriculture confirmed the presence of an invasive insect that threatens its grape vines, fruit trees and logging industry. To date, delimiting surveys conducted by the Pennsylvania Department of Agriculture (PDA) indicate that the infested area may be approximately 30 square kilometers (11.6 square miles) in six townships and two municipalities in eastern Berks County.

The below article would aptly describe the threat posed by these pesky insects.

 

 

Invasive insect found in Berks County feeds on fruit, ornamental, woody trees

By Vincent Cotrone

November 16, 2014

The first American chestnut disappeared from our forests and landscapes in the early 1900s when an exotic fungal disease, cryphonectria parasitica, aka chestnut blight, was accidentally introduced.

Next it was American elms that we lost to an imported disease in the 1960s. More recently, we have seen imported insects such as Emerald Ash Borer killing millions of native ash trees across the Eastern United States, Hemlock Woolly Adelgid, a tiny aphid like insect, causing major declines in native hemlock, and Asian Longhorned Beetles threatening maples in New York and New England.

“When will it end?” you might ask yourself. Apparently not anytime soon, because a new invasive insect (a planthopper) named the Spotted Lanternfly (Lycorma delicatula) has just been discovered in Berks County. This pest is native to China, India and Vietnam. It attacks and feeds on many host plants including fruit trees (apples, pears, plums), ornamental trees, woody trees and vines. Apples, birch, cherry, dogwood, grapes, lilac, maple, poplar, stone fruits and tree-of-heaven are among more than 70 species of hosts attacked by this pest.

Adults and nymphs feed on phloem tissues of foliage and young stems with their piercing and sucking mouthparts and excrete large quantities of liquid. Due to the sugar content of the liquid, plant parts covered with spotted lanternfly excretion harbor mold growth, which could hinder plant growth or even cause death.

Think this is just another nuisance bug? Think again. This pest poses a significant threat to the state’s more than $20.5 million grape, nearly $134 million apple and more than $24 million stone fruit industries. Pine and hardwood logging in Pennsylvania also accounts for $12 billion in sales.

As the state Department of Agriculture tries to control the spread of this new pest by placing quarantines on the movement of plants, wood and stone materials out of Berks County, it will also be conducting surveys across the commonwealth to determine if the infestation is wide spread. This is where the home gardener and commercial landscaper or arborist comes in.

A research paper about the bug’s spread in Korea explains why it can be tough to control: “Furthermore, no natural enemy of L. delicatula seems to exist in Korea. Thus, farmers use pesticides to control them in vineyards (Park et al. 2009). However, the use of pesticides kills natural enemies of other grape pests and L. delicatula can repopulate pesticide-sprayed areas from nearby forested areas, which contain suitable host species.” Evidently, we need a solution which would prevent the spread of these insects, but at the same time not harm the beneficial pests in any way.

At C Tech Corporation, we offer a safe and infallible solution to deal with these tiny insects. Termirepel™ is a non-toxic, non-hazardous product that primarily repels insects from the application. It is a broad spectrum repellent which works against almost 500 species of pestering bugs thus efficaciously fending them away from the application.  The best feature of this product is that it is an eco-friendly product that causes no harm to the insect as well as humans and the environment. It is available in masterbatch and lacquer form, and as a liquid solution. To keep these insects at bay, this product can be coated on the tree trunks in lacquer form. The repelling mechanism of the product would ward off the Spotted Lanternfly and any other insect that could harm our beloved trees. Thus, using Termirepel™ would effectively ensure that our cherished trees remain protected from this destructive pest!

One insect that is a major concern for gardeners and owners is the sod webworms. These are a common surface feeding insect that damage lawns. They live in virtually everyone’s lawn, but most of the time the damage is never noticed because there aren’t enough webworm larvae or the lawn is healthy and strong enough to repair itself.  No harm, no foul.  However, there are times when sod webworms become a problem and damage turf. Damage usually manifests itself as irregular dead patches that spread over time.  The grass blades seem to cut off at the crown and sometime you can see little balls of worm dropping or frass.

These pests look like tiny caterpillars but may not be visible as they hide in the soil. However, green pellets may be seen that they leave behind on grass blades. Sod webworms chew off the grass blades in lawns and the damage looks similar to a badly-cut lawn. What’s worse, sod webworms are drawn to beautiful looking lawns that are healthy and lush. They are small lawn caterpillars that feed on lawns, causing severe damage very quickly. Mature sod webworms can cause quite a bit of damage before they develop into dingy brown moths. They can consume enough grass in a short period of time to cause homeowners to think that the damage has occurred “overnight.”

Small brown spots may appear in the grass, a little at first, and then as the season progresses with rising temperatures and drier conditions, grass growth slows and the brown spots become larger and intersect. This is an indication of possible sod webworm infestation. They have even been noted to cause damage in small grain crops such as corn, wheat and oats. The most severe damage usually shows up in July and August when the temperature is hot and the grass is not growing vigorously. In fact, most sod webworm damage is mistaken for heat and drought stress. Sod webworm-damaged lawns may recover slowly, without irrigation and light fertilizations. These thin turf areas allow weeds to establish in the lawn making it unsightly.

The article given below would better explain the damage caused by these insects.

Tropical sod webworms active in local lawns

 By Larry Williams

October 2, 2014

During the past few weeks, numerous people have contacted the Okaloosa County Extension Office seeking diagnostic assistance and control options concerning fall sod webworms in their lawns.

Sod webworms are not consistently a problem every year. Some years their numbers are low enough that they are not a problem. Some years we do not see them at all.

Those years when they are a problem, it’s usually not until late summer and early fall that they become active. And, they may continue to feed on lawns until frost occurs.

Sod webworm larvae are commonly found feeding on St. Augustinegrass, bermudagrass and zoysiagrass.

Sod webworms tend to feed in patches and feed at night.

Adults of these species are fairly small grayish to brown moths.

Because sod webworms feed at night, don’t be surprised if you can’t find them during the day. The greenish or tan caterpillars will be resting, curled up near the soil line.

If you have damaged spots in your lawn, look closely for notched leaf blades, the telltale signs of their chewing damage.

They may also be found by parting the grass and looking for small green caterpillars (no larger than ¾-inch in length) curled up on the soil surface and for small green or brown pellet-like droppings.

Picking the bugs off grass by hand is obviously not an effective solution. Thus we need a solution which would effectively keep the sod webworm population in check, keeping them away from our lawns and crops, while at the same time not having any negative impact on the environment.

C Tech Corporation offers a product called Termirepel™, which is a non-toxic, non-hazardous, environmentally safe insect repellent. It can repel more than 500 species of insects on account of it being a broad spectrum anti-insect repellent. The most striking feature of Termirepel™ is that it neither kills the target species, nor the non-target species. It will simply keep the insects away from the application. This product is available in masterbatch and lacquer form, and as a liquid solution. Termirepel™ can be added in mulches or incorporated in agricultural bags and films, which could be used to keep our lawns safe and guarded against the pesky sod webworms!

Thousands of death, families broken, and the chair at the dinner table empty. All the precious lives, mindlessly ended due to the danger named dengue.

Dengue fever, also known as break bone fever, is an infectious tropical disease caused by the dengue virus. Symptoms include fever, headache, muscle and joint pains, and a characteristic skin rash that is similar to measles. In a small proportion of cases the disease develops into the life-threatening dengue hemorrhagic fever, resulting in bleeding, low levels of blood platelets and blood plasma leakage, or into dengue shock syndrome, where dangerously low blood pressure occurs.

Dengue is transmitted by several species of mosquito within the genus Aedes, principally A. aegypti. The virus has four different types; infection with one type usually gives lifelong immunity to that type, but only short-term immunity to the others. Subsequent infection with a different type increases the risk of severe complications. As there is no commercially available vaccine, prevention is sought by reducing the habitat and the number of mosquitoes and limiting exposure to bites.

Dengue was mainly introduced to Indians in the aftermath of the great floods experienced in Mumbai on 26^th July, 2006. It was a nightmare followed by even a greater nightmare. Every second person in the hospital bed was dying of this disease.

Now after 7 years, it still manages to claim lives. Below mentioned article was written in The Times of India on 1^st September, 2013. The track record of this disease is such that people totally lose hope.

Five BNSD Shiksha Niketan hostel inmates test positive for dengue

TNN Sep 1, 2013, 02.24AM IST

KANPUR: Five inmates of BNSD Shiksha Niketan hostel have tested positive for dengue. With this the number of dengue patients in the city in August has touched 37, including three deaths. Head of Microbiology department at GSVM Medical College Dr Atul Garg said that 11 new cases, including five BNSD students, have been reported in the ongoing week (August 26 and 31).

The disease also claimed a life at Lala Lajpat Rai (LLR) Hospital. Their platelet count was quite low and they were running high fever for the last few days. LLR’s Bal Rog Hospital head Dr RP Singh said that a kid from Maudaha region died of dengue on Thursday. He was brought to LLR on August 26. Two other deaths due to dengue were reported in the first fortnight of August. Commenting on the five hostel inmates, BNSD Shiksha Niketan’s media incharge Deepak Singh blamed unhygienic condition of Brijendra Swaroop ground adjacent to the hostel premises for the mosquito menace. He added that school management had repeatedly asked the municipal corporation to remove garbage from the ground but in vain.

“Civic body’s apathy has left students sick,” he added. However, he refused to comment after being told that dengue mosquitoes breed in clean water found in homes. Meanwhile, students alleged that hostel authorities were yet to empty the coolers.

Other news articles regarding the menace of dengue are in the following given links:

http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/city/delhi/142-test-positive-for-dengue-in-August/articleshow/22240268.cms

http://articles.timesofindia.indiatimes.com/2013-08-31/rajkot/41641149_1_dengue-fever-cases-rajkot-municipal-corporation-jagnath

If the misconception is that the dengue cases are only restricted to India, then it is wrong. The following links give a report of dengue in America, Puerto Rico etc.

http://news.yahoo.com/dengue-epidemic-looms-central-american-region-191518090.html

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/10/09/puerto-rico-dengue-epidemic_n_1952262.html

As we all know that the only way to fight a problem is to go to its root cause and uproot it. Well, the root cause of dengue as mentioned above is the mosquitoes. We can safely say that mosquitoes are omnipresent in most parts of India and around the world. There is no assurance that the mosquitoes will be totally extinct from world. So the only option is to find a solution which will repel mosquitoes and keep them away from us. At the same time the solution used should not harm the ecology.

Malaria is another disease caused by mosquitoes that can turn fatal. It is not as fatal as dengue, but leads to a lot of trauma among the victim.

The question here is why to go through so much trauma? The humans, being the evolved species have come up with solutions to every little problem. Then why not for this?

We, at C Tech Corporation have thought about this problem in detail and have come up with a viable solution. The solution is named as Termirepel™.  We are the sole manufacturers of the product Termirepel™.

Our company believes in the principles of sustainability and eco balance. We do not want to imbalance the cycle of life; therefore Termirepel™ can be easily described as termite aversive, used also against all types of insects and which works on the mechanism of repellence. It means that it does not kill the target insects or termites but only repels them, thus balancing the ecology and helping in maintaining the goal of sustainability. There are more than 500 species against which this product works.

This product can be easily used against mosquitoes. It can be used in terms of lacquer as well as liquid form. It can be coated on the end applications and thus mosquitoes can be kept away from homes, buildings and other public places.

Nothing in life is as smooth as the air plane runway. There are bound to be hurdles and bumps in our way. But how we tackle them defines our success. Using Termirepel™ to tackle the problem of mosquitoes will go a long way in giving us the success in eliminating diseases like dengue and malaria and will help us to live fearlessly.

A farmer has to take into consideration a number of factors during the germination and subsequent growth of seedlings and crops. Bad weather, unavailability of nutrients and pest damage are just some of the issues that a farmer has to be prepared for. While bad weather is something that cannot be controlled no matter what, prevention or control of pest damage is one thing that farmers can take care of to make sure they get abundant produce. One such pest of agriculture is the Ruther­glen bug.  Rutherglen bugs are mainly sap suckers and may cause damage to susceptible plants in a way similar to that caused by aphids.

Rutherglen bug is best known as a seed-feeding pest, attacking grain as it develops and fills. However, in some seasons, large numbers of nymphs and adults can cause damage to establishing winter or summer crops. Their populations can build up in summer weeds, and move from these into establishing winter crop, feeding on and killing small seedlings. Large numbers of Rutherglen bugs moving out of crops poses a threat to nearby establishing summer crop. The adults migrate into fields from local weed hosts, or more distant sources in spring. Infestations can be large and the period of invasion prolonged. The damage caused by these bugs may include flower abortion, reduced pod set and seed development. Direct feeding on developing seed may affect oil quantity, quality and seed viability. These bugs can persist into windrows, and at harvest cause problems with seed flow through harvesters, and by raising the moisture content of the grain to above acceptable standard.

The main issue with Rutherglen bugs around harvest time is con­t­a­m­i­na­tion of harvested grain. When they are in very large numbers they can cause a number of issues at harvest; live bugs in the sample can result in rejection of a load at the delivery point. In some seasons the infestation can reach plague proportions, typically when the senescence of weed hosts in spring and early summer forces adults and nymphs into nearby crops. Although Rutherglen bug is usually a pest in spring, in rare instances large infestations have occurred in autumn with seedling crops decimated by the feeding of adults and nymphs. In very large numbers, these bugs can dam­age seedling crops purely by weight of num­bers feed­ing on seedlings. The bugs maintain their populations on fallen sunflower seeds and migrate to cotton as the seedlings emerge. They suck the cotton seedlings dry resulting in an establishment problems and gappy stands. This situation can also arise in fields with poor hygiene where weeds act as a winter host. They can also build in some winter crops such as canola and then move into adjacent seedling cotton in the spring.

The below article would further emphasize on the damage caused by these pesky creatures.

Rutherglen bugs storm northern crops

18/12/12

An infestation of Rutherglen bugs that may have ridden recent storms into the northern grains region is causing headaches for growers from northern NSW to Central Queensland.

Dr Melina Miles, Queensland Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry (DAFF) says large numbers of Rutherglen bugs have migrated into cropping regions since early November.

“While the exact origin of the bugs is unknown, it is likely they are being carried on storm fronts from inland regions where they have bred up over winter and spring on native host plants,” Dr Miles said.

“Large numbers are affecting seedling establishment, simply by weight of numbers feeding on the emerging seedlings.

“In some instances the seedling crops are invaded by large numbers of nymphs walking out of weedy fallows into establishing crops.”

Dr Miles says ploughing a deep furrow between the seedling crop and the source of bugs, or a border spray may be sufficient to prevent ongoing infestation.

She says sorghum is vulnerable to Rutherglen bug from flowering to soft dough stage.

Grains Research and Development Corporation (GRDC)-supported research shows sorghum crops infested during flowering will fail to set seed, and infestations at milky dough stage will result in seed covered in small, dark feeding wounds.

Dr Miles says developing grain affected by Rutherglen bug feeding is light in weight, with poor germination. Under wet conditions, fungal and bacterial infections further degrade Rutherglen bug-damaged grain, infecting through feeding wounds on the seed.

If large num­bers of Rutherglen bug move into the estab­lish­ing crop, insec­ti­cide seed dress­ings will not pre­vent dam­age to seedlings, as each bug must feed to get a dose of the insec­ti­cide, and in doing so con­tribute to the plant damage. Therefore we need a solution that helps protect our plants and trees from damage, while at the same time does not harm the environment in any way. So, how do we fight this pest?  Keep reading!

At C Tech Corporation, we offer a safe and foolproof solution to deal with these tiny insects. Termirepel™ is a non-toxic, non-hazardous product that primarily repels insects from the application. It is a broad spectrum repellent which works against almost 500 species of pestering bugs thus efficaciously fending them away from the application. The best feature of this product is that it is environmentally safe and causes no harm to the insect as well as humans and the environment. It is available in masterbatch and lacquer form, and as a liquid solution. To keep these insects at bay, this product can be coated on the tree trunks in lacquer form or added in mulches or films. The repelling mechanism of the product would ward off the Rutherglen bug and any other insect that could harm our crops.

 

Pinyon pine is a beautiful tree, offering incredible structure to a desert. One of the slowest growing trees among the conifers, the Pinyon pine can take up to a hundred years to produce a single cone. The trees yield edible pinyon nuts, which are widely eaten by the Native Americans. Annual harvest of wild pinyon nuts exceeds a million pounds! The wood, especially when burned, has a distinctive fragrance, making it a common wood to burn in chimineas.  The pinyon pine trees are also known to influence the soil in which they grow. Sadly, these amazing trees are under attack by small, black, bean shaped invasive insects known as the Pinyon needle scales. These insects can cause the leaves of Pinyon pine trees to fall off and could also kill the tree!

These tiny, sap-sucking insects kill the needles and severely weaken Pinyon pines in forests. Reduced new growth and stunted needles are common on trees suffering repeated attacks. The needle length is reduced and needles drop prematurely. Heavy infestations frequently kill small trees and predispose weakened larger trees to attack by other insects. Feeding by adult females and nymphs causes the needles to turn yellow and prematurely fall. Most defoliation occurs on older needles, producing a tufted appearance with younger needles primarily persisting on infested trees. Small trees with scales can die in a few years when untreated. However, larger trees suffer more slowly, losing one or a couple branches at a time until they die.

This insect is most common and damaging in the United States, particularly in southern Colorado. Historic outbreaks were noted in 1957-1963 in southeast Nevada and southwest Utah, affecting several hundred thousand acres. In 2009, approximately 7% of Nevada’s pinyon forest mapped was affected by this insect. In 2010, nearly 1,161,000 acres of the approximately 9,950,000 acres of pinyon in Nevada were mapped as scale-defoliated.This represents 11.6% of Nevada’s pinyon forest!

The graveness of the issue can be better understood from the following article,

Pinyon needle scale eggs killing trees in some AZ cities

 Allison Miller

Apr 11, 2011

 PRESCOTT, AZ – Spring is providing us with warmer temperatures and beautiful spring blooms.

However, these warmer temperatures have already caused native insects, called pinyon needle scales to emerge. 

These insects can cause leaves of Pinyon pine trees to fall off and could also kill the tree.

Because of the warm temperatures, the female scales have already laid their eggs on the trees and will hatch in May. 

They can be found over thousands of acres including the Prescott area up the northwest to the Williamson Valley and are also spreading across the Payson area.

They look like noticable clusters of yellow eggs held together in loose, white, cottony webbing found in branch crotches, along the underside of branches, on the trunk, and at the base of the tree.

Bob Celaya, Forest Health Specialist says the eggs need to be spotted and treated as quickly as possible since they can kill small trees within a few years and large trees may take several years to die.

Evidently, unless proper measures are taken, the Pinyon pines may soon become extinct due to the Pinyon needle scale. Infested pine trees can be treated with chemicals and insecticides or by washing off the eggs from the surface of the trees before they get a chance to hatch. However, the efforts and costs associated with these methods, as well as the environmental safety concerns about applying toxic insecticides, make these techniques less feasible on a broad scale in natural areas.

At C Tech Corporation, we offer a safe and foolproof solution to deal with these tiny insects. Termirepel™ is a non-toxic, non-hazardous product that primarily repels insects from the application. It is a broad spectrum repellent which works against almost 500 species of pestering bugs thus efficaciously fending them away from the application. The best feature of this product is that it is environmentally safe and causes no harm to the insect as well as humans and the environment. It is available in masterbatch and lacquer form, and as a liquid solution. To keep these insects at bay, this product can be coated on the tree trunks in lacquer form. The repelling mechanism of the product would ward off the Pinyon needle scale and any other insect that could harm the pine trees. Thus, using Termirepel™ would effectively ensure that our cherished pines remain safe and protected from this destructive pest!

 

Termites though extremely small and tiny creatures have managed to stir us humans into noticing them and acknowledging their existence. The primary reason is the tune of damage they cause which has a direct impact on the economy of the country and thus the humans. Termites attack in groups and feed on any form of cellulose especially wood. This little bit of trivia makes us realize that almost everything around us is susceptible to a termite attack. Termites always seek for moisture filled places and therefore basements and the space under wooden boards are their favorable infestation places. Termite damage often looks similar to water damage. Outward signs of termite damage include buckling wood, swollen floor sand ceilings, areas that appear to be suffering from slight water damage and visible mazes within walls or furniture. Termite infestations also can exude a scent similar to mildew or mold. Dry wood termite infestations may only become apparent after a colony has burrowed so deeply into an infested item that the veneer cracks and the maze-like tunnels beneath become visible. Such damage is common in antique furniture pieces.

Termite infestations are rampant all over the world. February, March and April are the months when subterranean termites swarm as was experienced   by the clueless homeowners of Orange County as they came home to thousands of termites as was reported by the local pest control agency in Orange county on 2^nd Feb,2013. The incident left the home owners scared and shook up as some of them even mistook the termites to be flying ants. This incident was caused by a particular sect of termites which include the young king and queen termites as they set out for mating. These types of termites are distinctly different from the normal whitish “worker” termites. When the conditions are right, the young kings and queens burst out of their nest and begin their short flight. They often follow the prevailing breeze because they are poor fliers. Some break off their wings while still in flight and spiral down to the earth. Others may land and then remove their wings. These kings and queens are not attracted to one another until their wings have been clipped off. They have a very high mortality rate of 97% and only about 3% survive.

Countries like China have been at the receiving end of termite related damage for quite some time now. As the damage done by termites often goes unnoticed over long periods of time the detection of an infection is often in the later stage. Termites have damaged nearly 4,500 houses in the Guizhou province of China. The China News Service reported that since July 2012 termites have been rampant in the Xingyi city damaging thousands of homes forcing the evacuation of 1,700 people. The termites have caused an estimated direct economic loss of about 34 million Yuan ($5.45 million) at the time of going to press in Feb, 2013. The losses must have escalated now. Termites damage homes by eating away at the wood structure thus threatening the structural integrity of the whole set up. Termite infested homes are a life risk. Termite infestations are more severe than any of us give them credit for, as was experienced by a lawyer when he was asked to pay $68 K in damages to another lawyer for concealing termite infestation in his house as was reported on the official website of Campbell Law PC in April, 2013.

These measly creatures are sure causing us a lot of money!!Jamal Shahid of a newspaper in Islamabad, Pakistan reported on 28^th Jan, 2013 that Gallery 3 of the National Art Gallery was closed due to termite infestation. The termite infestation was a severe one and being detected at a very later stage forced the immediate closure of the gallery. The art that the gallery houses is worth millions and therefore no risk could be taken exposing it to termite damage. The infestation came to light when the authorities found conical mounds of sawdust under wooden skirting along the walls. The main reason for the termite attack was postulated to be the use of substandard wood used for skirting the frames and gallery railings which is more susceptible to a termite attack. This unforeseen closure of the gallery would definitely amount to huge financial losses as well as the constant threat of precious art getting destroyed. Thus an effective solution needs to be formulated to keep these creatures from causing us any further grief. Avoidance is a better solution than treatment in his case, as it is very difficult to save a piece of wood once it has been attacked by termites. The right and smart thing to do would be to keep them away from our precious wood. This is effectively achieved by Termirepel^™ a non-toxic, aversive termite repellant which keeps the termites away while at the same time not killing them.

It is said that the word rice is derived from the old French word ‘ris’ which in turn has its origin Italian, Latin and Greek. Whatever be the origin of the word, it is one of the major staple for a large part of the world’s human population, especially in Asia. It is the agricultural commodity with the third-highest worldwide production, after surgarcane and maize, according to data of FAOSTAT 2012.

Being the major staple food of most of the people, the impact is harder on the population due to the shortage of the rice. One of the dangers that befall the rice food leading to its shortage is attack by pests. Brown planthoper is a major rice pest which causes extensive damage and losses. Being distributed across Australia, Bangladesh, Bhutan, Burma (Myanmar), Cambodia, China, Fiji, India, Indonesia, Japan, North and South Korea, Laos, Malaysia, Nepal, Pakistan, Papua New Guinea, Philippines, Sri Lanka, Taiwan, Thailand, and Vietnam; the brown planthopper causes upto 60% yield loss. Their host plant other than rice is Leersia hexandra. They damage rice directly through feeding and also by transmitting two viruses, rice ragged stunt virus and rise grassy stunt virus.

Adults and nymph suck the phloem sap leading to hopper burn & resulting in drying of leaves. High infestation causes lodging of the crop and heavy loss in yield. Infestation is severe in high yielding varieties. Under favorable conditions they multiply very fast. Both brown planthopper(BPH) and white backed planthopper(WBPH) are known for their resistance to commonly used insecticides including the neonicotinoids. Hence crop failures due to severe pest outbreaks are very common in many rice-growing tracts of India. Temperature, relative humidity and prevailing wind direction determine the severity of incidence and spread of BPH.

In appearance the adult brown planthopper is Yellowish brown to dark brown in colour measuring 4.5 to 5.0 mm long.

• High nitrogen levels and close plant spacing, continuous submerged, shady and humid conditions in the field tend to favor the BPH increase.
• Extensive rice areas with irrigation facilities, multiple rice cropping are important factors for insect abundance.
• Outbreaks of the insect pests are closely associated with insecticide misuse, especially during the early crop stages. These insecticide sprays usually directed at leaf feeding insects disrupt the natural biological control, which favor the BPH development as secondary pest.
• The insect prefers rainfed and irrigated wetland fields to upland rice and transplanted fields to direct sown fields.

Let’s take a look at the following article highlighting the damage done by brown planthopper;

Pest attack on aman fields worries farmers

Our Correspondent, Lalmonirhat, Wednesday, October 22, 2014

Farmers in the district are worried as attack on paddy fields by brown plant hopper (BPH), locally known as current poka, poses threat to their hope for a good yield of aman this season.

Agriculture officials claim the situation is now under control while the farmers said the use of pesticides has failed to check the pest attack.

Farmers said BPH started attacking aman plants a week ago and many aman paddy fields in the district have already been attacked. They are trying to save their aman plants from being attacked by BPH, using natural methods and spraying pesticides in the fields.

Nurul Islam Bappi, a farmer of Durakuti village in Sadar upazila, said his aman plants on two bighas of land have been attacked by BPH (current poka) and it is also attacking the plants on another two bighas of land. “I have been spraying pesticides in the fields for the last three days, but to no effect,” he said.

Abdul Jalil of Jumma Para village in the upazila said BPH attacked aman plants on his three bighas of land five days ago and wreaked havoc on 50 percent plants. “As per advice of local agriculture officer, I sprayed pesticides that yielded no positive results,” he said.

Contacted, Deputy Director Safayet Hossain of the Department of Agriculture Extension in Lalmonirhat, said the situation is ‘not so alarming’. Agriculture officials are working at field level and giving advice to the farmers about use of pesticides and other methods to combat the PBH disease, he added.

Using conventional toxic pesticides will not be effective as the brown planthopper has become resilient to them. Pesticides are toxic, hazardous and pollute the environment. So a solution has to be adopted which have the traits exactly opposite to the deadly pesticides.

C-Tech Corporation provides a solution for the hopeful farmers to protect their crops effectively and efficiently. Termirepel™ a non-toxic, non-hazardous and environment friendly product repels all kinds of insects, termites, pests. They can be incorporated in agricultural films, mulches and irrigation pipes to protect the crops from the vicious pests. The product is available in the form masterbatch as well as liquid solution and is compatible with most the base polymers. The most important quality of the product is that it does not kill the target species but repels them.  Using Termirepel™ will ensure that the crops are protected which gives a ray of hope for the problem of malnourishment.