PESTS OF GINGELLY :: Major Pests :: Gall Fly

Distribution and status:  East Africa, India

Host range:  Sesame

Damage symptoms: Maggots feed on the ovary and results in the malformation of pods without proper setting of seeds.  Flowers and young capsules with gall like swelling is the typical symptom of attack.

Bionomics: Adult is a small mosquito like fly.  It lays eggs in the flowers or buds.  The egg period is 2-4 days.  The maggot is white, found inside the flowers.  The larval period is about 2-3 weeks.  It pupates inside the malformed capsules.  The fly emerges from galls in 7-12 days.  The total life cycle is completed in 23-27 days.

Management

1. Dust any one of the insecticides per ha on 25, 35 and 50th day of sowing.  Endosulfan 4D 25 kg, phosalone 4D 25 kg, malathion 5D 25 kg.
2. Spray any one of the insecticides on 25, 35 and 50th days of sowing endosulfan1.0 L, phosalone 1.0 L, quinalphos 1.0 L, dichlorvos 500 ml/ha in  700 L water per hectare.
3. Alternate insecticides each time.