Ecology, Environment and Conservation Paper

ASSESSMENT OF BARK EATER INFESTATIONS AND ITS MANAGEMENT IN TERMINALIA ARJUNA, PRIMARY FOOD PLANT OF TASAR SILKWORM

J. Singh, T. Pandiaraj, S. Kujur, G.P. Singh1, A.K. Sinha and K.S. Rawat

Abstract

An experiment was conducted with an aim to assess the bark eater infestation in Terminalia arjuna, a primary Tasar food plant at different plots viz., 1, 5, 6, 11, 18 and 22 of research farm at Central Tasar Research and Training Institute, Ranchi. The results revealed that infestation of bark eater was observed at decreasing trend in the order of plot number 18 (20.12%) > 11 (19.57%) >5 (11.73%) >1 (10%) > 22 (8.75%) > 6 (5.54%). The highest infestation was observed in the plot of 18 where recorded 20.12%, whereas, less infestation as 5.94% in 6th plot with an average infestation of bark eater was 13% in Arjuna plants. The overall average severity of bark eater infestation was observed low (93), moderate (38) and high (33) respectively. Regards management, treatment includes remove web with the help of knife along with Neem extract and water @ 1:5 ratio showed highest shining (80%) of outer bark with 75% successful control bark eater in Arjuna plantation.