The Study on Influence of Weather Parameters on Pest Population of Sweet Orange

Abstract

Citrus, India's third-largest fruit sector after mango and banana plays a crucial role in the country's horticultural wealth and economy. The investigation “influence of weather parameters on pest population of sweet orange” was carried out during Mrig bahar 2020, on the farm of Progressive Farmer Shri. Santosh Dombale's field at Tal. Indapur, Dist. Pune, through Department of Agricultural Entomology, College of Agriculture, Badnapur, V.N.M.K.V, Parbhani, with an objective to study population dynamics of major insect Pest of sweet orange. Nucellar of Sweet orange variety was used for study. The experiment was conducted under Randomized Block Design (RBD) with the 7 treatments and 3 replications. The highlights of findings are given below. The study on influence of weather parameters on major insect pests of sweet orange showed that the attack of Citrus psylla and Citrus thrips commenced from 33rd SMW (Standard Meteorological Week) in second fortnight of August 2020. The peak incidence of these insect pests during 44th SMW (19 thrips/twig) and 35th SMW (2.8 psylla/twig) respectively. Throughout the study period, maximum temperature correlated positively with both pests, whereas minimum temperature correlated negatively with Thrips and Psylla. Morning humidity and minimum humidity correlated negatively with these pests, while rainfall correlated negatively with Thrips and positively with Psylla. The natural enemy lady bird beetle also recorded in average number during the season ranged from 1.8 to 3.8 and reached to peak in 47th SMW noted 3.8 LBB/twig. Study suggest that follow the curative spray at the peak period of pest development.