This big stem borer has suddenly been causing a lot of damage. Going around the estate earlier this week I observed a lot of damage. Much more than thought earlier. On putting some workers on detecting & pruning-off till live wood, we have found about 15 plants per hectare that had to be uprooted/collar pruned. And this is what is visible. The team is now going around other areas in the estate in dealing with the affected plants.
The measures being taken are - prune down to live wood, paste the cut, remove the pruned part of the bush out onto a road & burn the lot. Bags are being used to carry the bushes out for burning.
We started splitting the branches to look at the borer (note the attached photographs) we discovered that the larvae, in great numbers, were tucked up in some smaller branches too. The tunnelling too is all over the plant's main stems. Thus I decided that the treatment was to remove affected branches & burn them.
I have asked Director TRA,Jorhat & Director UPASI to have a look at the photographs and let me know what borrer it is. To me it appeared very similar to the 'Fassus Borrer' that was prevelant in Coffee in South India, or was it East Africa ?
1 comment:
love to see "Fassus borer" as i have notice weird looking caterpillar in shade, some one identified it as "Tent Caterpillar" i have reservation as those species are mostly native of temperate region.
ashok pareek
Post a Comment