CULTURAL CONTROL
SUBMITTED BY:CH.SUPRIYA,
RH/15-56.
SUBMITTED TO:SWATHI MAM.
CULTURAL CONTROL:
❖ The manipulation of cultural practices at an appropiate
time for reducing or avoiding pest damage to crops is
known as CULTURAL CONTROL.The cultural practises
make the environment less favourable for the pests and
or more favourable for its natural enemies.
There are four main strategies for cultural control of
pest insects:
❖ Reduce and /or disrupt pest habitat in and around
crop.
❖ Adjust crop planting to disrupt pest haibtat and
nutrition requirements.
❖ Divert pest population away from crop.
❖ Reduce yield loss from insect injury.
CULTURAL METHODS
• SELECTION OF SITE:
• Sometimes a pest can be avoided by selecting a planting
site that is ideal for the crop and natural enemies of the
pest but unfavourable for the pest itself.Factors to include
are the history of the site,and its proximity to potential
overwintwering sites or sites with abundant natural
controls,climate,slope ,elavation,aspect ,soil
conditions,weed species,etc.One key is to avoid stressing
the crop.when plants are grown in stressed conditions thet
tend to emit signals that attract certain pests. CARROT FLY
CARROT
• PLANT DESIGN AND MANAGEMENT: FLY
• CROP ISOLATION: The location of crops with respect
to one another and their degree off isolation can affect
their likelihood of being invaded by pests.Isolation from old
crops of same type and from closely related indegenous
host-plants that act as sources of pests,is one way of
reducing the probability of attack.The chance od invasion
occuring will,however, increase with time. Hence, this
practise is most appropiate for annual crops,especially
when cimatis conditions are not ideal.Seperation of
sequentially planted crops in time to disrupt host-plant
continuity and prevent easy pest dispersal may be useful.
Eg.,carrot fly control.
•PLANTING DENSITY AND MANAGEMENT:
▪ The primary objective of this cultural method is to
maximize yield per unit area without reducing crop
quality,so that yield advantages overide pest incidence
reduction.It can also be used to reduce pest numbers
and damage.spacing mayaffect the relative rate of APHIDS
growth of the plant and its pest population per unit of
time,and the behaviour of the insect pest in searching
for food or for oviposition site.
▪ Some insect pests are attracted by low density planting
because they are silhoutted against bare ground.eg .,at
low density,brassicas attract more aphids.
▪ Plant spacing is also used to promote vigorous and
strong plants,which in itself can be a good cultural CORN STALK BORER
control.eg.,A good protection for corn against corn
stalkborer.
▪ Plant spacing that encourages rapid crop maturation
could also provide a means of encouraging early fruiting
and harvesting of crops of intermediate flowering
plants.This has been used in the south against
bollweevils and pink bollworms. PINK BOLLWORMS
MIXED CROPPING:
• In this approach, more than one crop is grown one the same RICE STEM BRORER
piece of land.
• Mixed cropping is intended for getting some return when one
crop is attacked,the other escapes.
eg:Garden peas and sun hemp.
TIME OF SEEDLING AND PLANTING:
This is used largely to:
1. Avoid invasions by migrants ,or the oviposition period of Utethsia lotrix
particular pests,and the introduction of disease in the crop by
insect vectors.
2. To synchronise the pest attack with its natural enemies ,with
weather conditions that are adverse for the pest .
eg.,Early planting of paddy in kharif and late planting in rabi
minimize the infestation of rice stem borer.
3. Delaying the sowing of sunhemp till the onset of south west
monsoon avoids sunhemp hairy catterpillar[Utethsia lotrix] STEM BORER
attack.
4. Early sown sorghum in karif reduces the infestation of shoot
fly.
5. Timely and synchronous planting has been found to reduce
bollworm damage in cotton and stem borer damage in
sugarcane.
CROP ROTATION:
• It is the most effective practise against pests that have a narrow host
range and dispersal capacity.
• An effective rotation is one in which a crop of one family is followed
by one from a different family that is not a host crop of a pest to be
controlled.
• Lady’s finger followed by cotton will suffer from increased infestation
of pests.Hence if a non-host crop is grown after a host crop,it reduces
the pest population.eg.,Cereals followed by pulses.
• Cotton should be rotated with non-hosts like ragi,maize,rice to
minimize the incidence of insect pests.
• Ground with non leguminous crops is recommended for minimizing
the leaf miner incidence.
DESTRUCTION OF VOLUNTEER PLANTS:
• Such palnts are very attarctive to many insects and serve as the
focal point for future infestations.Unless they are destroyed they can
help perpetuate a pest problem by furnishing a food source to long
life-cycled pests of preceeding crops.
MANAGEMENT OF TRAP CROPS:
• Trap crops [often small plantings,often made earlier than the
main plantings]are used to divert insect attack away from the
crop at risk by using more attractive food sources
• This ,method involves the planting of a crop upon infested
land so that the pest is stimulated to attack,,but the crop is
either removed before the pest can complete its life cycle or Spodoptera litura
it will not provide all the requirements necessary for the
completion of the pests lifecycle.Alternatively the trap crop
may be preferentially attacked in the presence of the crop
one needs to protect.
• Eg., TRAP CROP MAIN CROP INSECT CROP
Castor chillies Tobacco catterpillar
Spodoptera litura
Tomato citrus Fruit sucking moths
Otheris spp.
Fruit sucking moth
MANAGEMENT OF NURSERY CROPS:
• Like trap crops these are the plants that are more
attractive to the pest than the commercial crop,but in
this case the aim is to provide a site where both pests
and their natural controls can build up,the latter
dispersing to the crop and providing effective control.
• MANAGEMENT OF SURROUNDING
ENVIRONEMNTS:
• [Field crops,hedges,borders,adjacent woodlots and PLUM CURCULIO
bodies of water]these habitants can be designed and
manages to provide ideal conditions for the natural
enemies of pests
• Often this involves providing suitable flowering plants
for predators and parasites and making sites unsuitable
for overwintering pests.eg.,Coniferous litter around an
orchard makes the wood lot unattractive to
overwintering plumcurculio,therby forcing them to
over winter in the orchard where they suffer higher
mortality than in suitable woodlot.
MAINTENANCE OF SITE:
• PROPER PREPARATORY CULTIVATION :Several insects
which live or hide in the soil get exposed to sun as well as predators
like birds rtc due to proper preparatory cultivation.eg.,Pupae of
moths,root grubs etc.
• CLEAN CULTIVATION:Removal of weeds which act as
alternate hosts.
Orseolia oryzea
• Eg.,Paddy gall fly orseolia oryzea breeds on grasses such as
Panicum sp.,Cynodon dactylon etc.
• Fruit sucking moth larvae Eudocima ancilla on weeds of
Menispermaceae.
• SYSTEMATIC CUTTING AND REMOVAL OF INFESTED
PARTS:Keeps down subsequent infestation.
• eg., Removal of sugarcane shoots affected by borers. Eudocima ancilla
• Cutting and removal of infested parts of brinjal attacked by
Leucinodes orabanalis.
• Pruning of dried branches of citrus eliminates scales and stem
borer.
• Clipping of tips of rice seedlings befoe transplantation
eliminates the egg masses of stem borer.
• Clipping of leaf lets in coconut reduces the black headed
catterpillar. Leucinodes
orbanalis.
CHANGES IN SYSTEM OF CULTIVATION:
• Change of banana from perennial to annual crop reduced the
infestation of banana rhizome weevil cosmopolitus sordidus in
addition to giving increased yields.
• Avoiding ratoon redgram crop during offseason helps in reducing the
carry over of pod fly Melangromyza obtusa and eriophyid mite Aceria
cajani.
• GROWING RESISTANT VARIETIES:
• Certain varieties resists pest attack.
• Eg.,GEB-24 and MTU-5249 resistance to paddy BPH,Surekha variety Cosmopolitus
to gall midge, TKM-6 and Ratna for stem borer.
sordidus
• FERTILISATION,LIMIMG AND MANURING:
• Plant nutrition can influence the feeding,longevity and fecundity of
phytophagous pests,the common fertiliser elements[nitrogen and
potassium]can have direct and indirect effects on pest supression.
• In general, nitrogen in high concentrations has the reputation of
increasing pest incidence,particularly of sucking pests such as mites
and aphids.
• Fertilisation promotes rapid growth and shortens the susceptible
stages.It gives better tolerance to,and opportunity to compensate Melangromyza
for,pest damage.
obtusa
• Trace minerals and plant harmones sprays[eg.,from seaweed
extracts]have been found to reduce damage by certain pests.
TRIMMING FIELD BUDS:
• Grasshopper eggs,which are laid in field bunds are destroyed
by trimming field bunds.
• FLOODING THE FIELD:
• Flooding of fields is recommended for reducing the attack of
cut worms, army worms,termites,root grubs etc.,
• Eg., For cut worms like paddy swarning
caterpillar[Spodoptera mauritinana and S.exiqua]and ragi
cutworm. By flodding the fields caterpillars float and leave
the plants.
• DRAINING THE FIELDS:
• In case of paddy case,worm Numphula depunctalis ehich
travel from plant to plant via water.It can be eliminated by Flooding the
draining or drying field. field
• Draining the rice fields for 3-4 days during infestation
controls BPH and whorl maggot.
ALLEY WAYS:
• Formation of alley ways for every 2m in rice field reduces
the BPH Nilaparvata lugens. Nilaparvata
lugens.
SANITATION AND CROP RESIDUE DESTRUCTION:
• This method is used to reduce pest infestation through the removal
of breeding and hibernating sites.Sanitation has broad
applicability,to be most effective,it requires knowledge of the habits
of pest species and careful timing.It involves:
i. Eradication of harmful weed hosts or alternate hosts.
ii. Timely destruction of crop residues.
iii. Cleaning of field borders of alternate hosts and removal of scrub Codling moth
or shelter in which pests might hide eg.,in orchards,destruction of
cull or dropped fruits and pupation sites for codling moth,apple
maggot,and plum curculio may be achieved by ,means of
livestock and suction or cultivation equipment.
• HARVESTING PROCEDURES:
• TIMING OF HARVESTING:Early harvesting can be used to
disrupt survival of the pest in its habitat.Also,clipping or early Apple maggot
harvesting can be helpful in destoying immature insects that are in
the foliage.
• STRIP HARVESTING:In this system,crops are harvested in
alternate strips,so that two different aged growths occur
simultaneously in a field.When one series of strips is cut,the
alternate strips are about half grown and the field becomes rather
stable environment. This is used in alfa alfa,where lygus bugs are
a problem.
Lygus bug
OTHER CULTURAL METHODS:
❖ Root weevil,[Echinocnemus oryzae]damage in rice can be
overcome by applying 20 kg ammonium sulphate and 40kg single
super phosphate in rice.
❖ Ranking up and hoeing of the soil around gourds,mango and
other fruit trees serves to destroy pupae of fruit flies. Echinocnemus
❖ Adoption of high seed rate in sorghum and later removal and oryzae
destruction of shoot fly[Atherigona soccata]affected ones.
❖ Trash mulching@3t/ha 3 days after planting or earthing up to a
month or two after planting minimize early shoot borer[Chilo
infuscatellus]attack in sugarcane.
❖ Destruction of crop residue:stubbles of sugarcane and paddy
that harbour borers should be ploughed up and burnt. Athrigona soccata
❖ Deep ploughing in summer exposes most of the soil inhabiting
insects to sun and hot winds and get them killed.
❖ Periodical drying of stored produce against stored grain pests.
❖ Pruning of dried wings/branches to eliminate pests like scales
and orange borer.
Chilo infuscatellus
