PESTS OF PEARL MILLET :: Major Pests :: Shoot Fly

Damage symptoms: A serious pest on pearl millet all over India in Tamil Nadu during cold weather season; it attacks the crop both in seedlings and boot leaf stage.  It causes dead hearts in young plants and chaffy grains in the mature crop.

Bionomics: Adult is greyish white fly.  The egg-stage of the fly lasts 37-48 hours, larval stage 7-9 days and pupal stage 6 days.

Management

• Use resistant varieties like Co-1, CSH 15R, Maldandi and Hagari, M35-1, Swati, SPV 491, IS - 18551, 5566, 5285, 5613, ICSV 700, ICSV 705, Phule Yashoda, CSH 7, CSH 8
• Sow sorghum immediately at the onset of monsoon rains to minimise shootfly damage.
• Use higher seed rate (12.5 kg/ha) and remove the shoot fly damaged seedlings at the time of thinning or raise nursery and transplant only healthy seedlings.
• Pull out and destroy plants showing dead hearts at the time of thinning.
• Set up hanging type of plastic fishmeal trap @ 12/ha till the crop is 30 days old.
• Treat 100 kg seeds with chlorpyriphos 20 EC 400 ml or quinalphos 25 EC 400 ml  or imidacloprid 48 FS 1.2 L or imidacloprid 70 WS 1.0 kg or thiomethoxam 30 FS 1.0 L
• Granular application of phorate 10 G or carbofuran 3 G to the furrow at the time of sowing at 2.5 kg a.i./ha.
• Spray endosulfan 35 EC @18 ml, dimethoate 30 EC @ 12 ml and methyl demeton 25 EC @12 ml for an area of 120 m2 nursery.  
• Spray any one of the following insecticides in the mainfield - endosulfan 35 EC 500 ml, dimethoate 30 EC  500 ml (250 L of spray fluid/ha).
  
  

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