AMERICAN BOLLWORM

Helicoverpa armigera (Noctuidae : Lepidoptera)

IDENTIFICATION

- Adults grey to brown in colour
- Wing span 44 mm.
- A dark brown kidney shaped mark on the forewing.

LIFE HISTORY
Egg: 2 – 4 days
Larva: 13 – 40 days
Pupa: 8 – 15 days
Generations: 4 – 8 per year
Active period: July to October

DAMAGE
- Poly phagous

- Feeds on leaves and all fruiting bodies

- Head inside, body outside while feeding on bolls.

- Excreta pellets present on the attacked buds and bolls.

INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT (IPM)

- Sowing of “bajra” around the cotton fields

- Use Trichogramma cards on winter vegetables and gram crop.

- Clean cultivation

- Ploughing of fields after harvest of the crop

- Avoid early sowing of cotton

- Apply fertilizer after soil analysis especially following fields of potato crop