4. Pink borer, Sesamia inferens
(Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)
• The pink borer is polyphagous insect.
• It feeds on wheat, finger millet, rice, sugarcane,
maize, sorghoum.
• The damage is caused by the caterpillars which
are pinkish brown and have a smooth
cylindrical body, measuring about 25mm.
• The moth are straw coloured and have stout
body.
5.
6. Life cycle:
• The pest breeds actively from March- April to November on rice
and then migrates to the wheat crop.
• The moth are nocturnal and lay eggs on leaves or on the ground.
• The egg hatch in 6-8 days and young caterpillar bore into the
epidermal layers of the leaf sheath.
• Later on, they bore into the stem as a result of which the growing
shoot dries up producing dead hearts.
• When the attacked plants die, the larva move onto adjoining plants.
• They are full fed in 3-4 weeks and pupate inside the stem or in
between the stem and leaves.
• The pupal stage last about a week and the life cycle is completed in
6-7 weeks.
• There are 4-5 generations of the pest in a year.
7.
8. Damage:
• The attacked young plants shows dead hearts
and are killed together.
• The older plants are not killed, but they
produce a few grains only.
9. Management:
• The removal and destruction of stubble at the time of
the first ploughing after harvesting the crop.
• Ploughing and flooding the field is also effective in
killing the larvae
• Clipping of tips of seedling before transplanting can
reduce the carryover of eggs to the field
• Use trichocard with 50,000-1,00,000 trichogramma
per ha
• The field showing more than 5% dead hearts should
be sprayed with 875 ml triazophos 40 EC or 2.5 liters of
chlorpyriphos 20EC in 250 liter of water per ha.
