INFESTATION INTENSITY OF PAPAYA MEALYBUG (Paracoccus marginatus) IN FARMER’S FIELD AND ITS MANAGEMENT

Abstract

Information was collected from papaya growers and DAE personnel of ten districts namely, Dhaka, Rajshahi, Kustia, Gazipur, Pabna, Norsindhi, Tangail, Joypurhat, Natore and Bogura during November 2017 to December 2018 to assess the diversity of insect pests of papaya and its management practices used by growers. Descriptive statistics, Pearson product moment correlation coefficient, were used for analysis. Four insect pests namely mealybug, fruit fly, ant and mite were reported by the growers as well as DAE personnel. Among the papaya growers most (98%) of them were male and only 2% were female. Majority of them (40.67%) were middle aged (41-50 years) farmers compare to old aged (51-60 years) which occupied 34.67%. Most of the papaya growers 65.33% could not read or write but could sign only. Highest experience category of papaya growers were medium category (86.67%) followed by low category (12.0%). For seed use, the highest percentage of the farmers 50.33%) used their own seed followed by 23.67% and 21.33% were used seeds of company and neighbor, respectively. In case of pest occurrence in the papaya field 48.15% respondents expressed that papaya mainly infested by mealybug followed by whitefly (27.45% farmers), mite (20.39% farmers) and ant (4.01% farmers). Among the pests, mealybug and ant were reported to infest leaf, stem, flower and fruits but whitefly and mites were reported as leaf infesting pests. Low (8.70%), medium (47.83%) to high level (43.48%) severity of infestation was reported by the farmers and majority of the farmers (55.56%) reported medium severity of whitefly infestation. All farmers (100%) reported mealybug as a major pest of papaya, followed by 35.23% and 24.76% farmers reported whitefly and mite, respectively as major pests of papaya. Farmers used Marshal 20EC, Sumithion 50EC, imitaf 20SL or tido 20SL 3-4 times for controlling mealybug, iii imitaf 20SL or tido 20SL and aktara 20WG 1-2 times for controlling whitefly and sunmectin 1.8EC/ acamite 1.8EC / vertimec 1.8EC for controlling mite.Most of the farmers (65.27%) opined that mealybug infested in the papaya plant at fruiting stage and infestation occurred on leaf, stem, flower and fruit with medium to high severity of infestation but maximum infestation was reported from fruit (36.31% farmers opinion) followed by flower infestation (34.24% farmers opinion). Majority of the farmers (96.42%) applied insecticides to control mealybug and marshal 20EC, sumithion 50EC, imitaf or tido 20SL and caught 10EC were used 3-4 times by the farmers. But majority of the farmers (47.52%) sprayed imitaf 20SL/tido 20SL 3-4 times for controlling mealybug. In responding effectiveness of insecticides, most of the farmers (93.33%) reported that mealybug was controlled by insecticides spraying and 6.67% farmers reported ineffectiveness of insecticides. Most of the papaya growers (96.67%) were conscious about hazardous effect of chemical insecticides and most of them (96.93%) reported health hazards.