Thick colonies of small soft greenish grey insects are covering the flowering tops and pods of my mustard. The shoots are sticky, curling and stunted and ants are crawling around. Cold weather. Rajasthan. How do I control them?
Dense colonies of soft greenish grey insects smothering the flowering tops and pods, with sticky curling stunted shoots and ants around, is mustard aphid, the major pest of the crop in the cold flowering and pod stage. Heavy attack at flowering and pod fill can cause big yield and oil loss, so monitor from flowering. The economic threshold is commonly when a good share of plants carry colonies on the central twig, often around 25 to 30 aphids per 10 cm of central twig, then act. Clip and destroy the first few heavily infested top twigs to remove the founder colonies. Conserve ladybird beetles, which can clear light infestations. On threshold spray a recommended insecticide, rotate modes of action, and time the spray in the afternoon to protect foraging bees during flowering, following label dose and PHI. Confirm the threshold and current chemical with your KVK or ICAR Directorate of Rapeseed Mustard Research, Bharatpur, which is in your district.
Clipping the first infested twigs early really delays the build up. And spraying in the late afternoon kept the bees safe, our area has a lot of bee boxes during mustard flowering.
The ladybird beetles cleaned up my light patches before I even needed to spray. I only sprayed the heavy corner once the threshold crossed.
One more thing, sowing on time matters. My early sown mustard was past peak flowering when the aphid built up, so it suffered less than the late sown plots that got hammered at pod fill.
Get free daily mandi prices, MSP changes, scheme cut-offs and weather alerts - and your own Kisan ID.
Today's rates, MSP moves, scheme deadlines and weather - the moment they matter.
Join Bharat Annadata Sangh free - get a digital farmer ID card and free answers from our Krishi Team.
100% free · No spam · Prices from Agmarknet · Unsubscribe anytime
