When I walk through my flowering mustard there is a strong bad smell, and I see flat orange and black shield shaped bugs in groups on the pods and shoots. The seeds in attacked pods are shrunken. Rajasthan. What is this bug?
A strong foul smell with flat orange and black shield shaped bugs clustered on pods and shoots, shrivelling the seed, is painted bug, an important pest of mustard at seedling and again at the podding and maturity stage. They suck the developing seed so the pods give shrunken light seed. At seedling stage they can kill young plants, and at maturity they spoil seed quality, so monitor at both times. Remove weed hosts of the mustard family around the field. At threshold spray a recommended insecticide, rotating modes of action, and time afternoon sprays to protect bees during flowering, following label dose and PHI. Timely early sowing helps the crop pass the vulnerable stage before the bug peaks in some belts, while very late crops at maturity in warm weather suffer most. Confirm the pest and the chemical with your KVK or DRMR Bharatpur.
Painted bug hit my late sown crop badly at the seedling stage and killed many plants. Sowing on time the next year, my crop crossed that stage before the bug came up in numbers.
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