Pest of Rice and their management

1. Pests of Rice and their management

2. ➔ India - largest paddy output
➔ Fourth largest exporter
➔ Largest rice producing state- West Bengal
➔ Rabi and Kharif
➔ Kaveri delta - Tamil Nadu
➔ Kuttanadu - Kerala
➔ Gangavathi - Karnataka

3. I. BORERS
1. Paddy stem borer
2. Paddy gall midge
II. DEFOLIATORS
1. Swarming caterpillar
2. Rice case worm
3. Rice skipper
4. Leaf folder/ roller
5. Rice horned caterpillar
6. Yellow hairy caterpillar
7. Grasshoppers
8. Spiny beetle/ Rice hispa
9. Whorl maggot

4. III.SUCKING PESTS
1. Thrips
2. Green leafhopper
3. Brown planthopper
4. Mealybug
5. Earhead bug

5. I. Borers:
Paddy stem borer- Scirpophaga incertulas
(Crambidae; Lepidoptera)
Host range: Rice, It is monophagous pest on rice
Symptoms:
★ Presence of brown coloured egg mass near leaf tip
★ Caterpillar bore into central shoot of paddy
seedling and tiller- drying of the central shoot
known as “dead heart”
★ Plants could be easily pulled by hand
★ Grown up plant whole panicle becomes dried
“white ear” CRIDA

6. ● The stem borer larvae bore at the base
of the plants during the vegetative stage.
On older plants, they bore through the
upper nodes and feed toward the base.
● The boring larvae feed upon tillers and
cause dead hearts or drying of the
central tiller, during the vegetative stage;
and cause whiteheads at the
reproductive stage.

7. Identification of life stages:
Egg: creamy white, laid in mass and covered with buff coloured
hairs.
Larva: pale yellow, dark brown head
Pupa- inside the stem, silken cocoon
Adult:
Sexual dimorphism
Female: bright yellowish brown fore wings with a
black spot at the centre and a tuft of yellow hairs at the anal region.
Male: Small, pale yellow without spots
CRIDA

8. Agropedia

9. Management:
ETL: 2 egg masses/ m2
● 10% dead hearts - Vegetative stage
● 2% white ear - Flowering stage
● Grow resistant varieties viz., Ratna, Jaya, TKM 6, IR 20 and IR 26, Sayasree,
Saket, IET 3127, IET 2812, MTU 5849, PTB 12, PTB 20, PT 321, H 4
● Clip the seedling tips before transplanting to eliminate egg masses and collect
& destroy the egg masses in main field.
● Avoid close planting and continuous water stagnation at early stages.
● Collect and destroy the dead hearts and white ears.
● Set up light traps to attract and kill the moths.
● Install sex pheromone traps to monitor and mass trap.
● Release the egg parasitoid, Trichogramma japonicum 1,00,000/ ha at the
weekly interval, 3 times during infestation.

10. ● Apply Bacillus thuringiensis var kurstaki and neem seed kernel extract in
the combination of 2.5 g/L and 1% to reduce the oviposition by the stem
borer.
● Apply Thiamethoxam (12.6%) + Lambda-cyhalothrin (9.5%) ZC or
Acephate 75% SP or Fipronil 5% SC or Chlorantraniliprole 18.5% SC three
times: first in nursery a week before pulling, second at a fortnight after
transplanting and the third at shot blade stage of the crop.
● Harvest the crop up to the ground level and disturb the stubbles with
plough immediately after the harvest

11. 2. Paddy gall midge - Orseolia oryzae
(Cecidomyiidae; Diptera)
Host range: Rice, wild species of Oryza and grasses like
Paspalum scrobiculatum, Panicum spp., Cyanodan dactylon
and Eleucine indica
Symptoms:
❖ Maggot feed at the base of the growing shoot
❖ Rice gall midge forms a tubular gall at the base
of tillers, causing elongation of leaf sheaths
called onion leaf or silver shoot or anaikomban
❖ Infested tillers produce no panicle
(cecidogen -responsible for cell proliferation of
the meristematic cells and gall formation)

12. Identification:
Egg: Elongate, cylindrical, shiny white or red eggs at
base of the leaves
Larva: Maggot 1 mm long , creeps down the sheath and
enters the growing bud. An oval chamber is formed
round the site of feeding.
Pupa: Inside the shoot
Adult: Yellowish brown and mosquito like.
The male is ash grey in colour.

13. Semantic Scholar

14. Management:
ETL: 10% silver shoots
● Encourage early planting of the crop with quick growing varieties.
● Use resistant varieties like MDU-3, Shakthi, Vikram, Sureka, IR
36, Katiya, Dhanaya Lakshmi, Phalguna, Kunti, Shamlei, Asha,
Rajendran, Shrakasha
● Plough immediately after crop harvest.
● Remove the alternate host.
● Apply fertilizers in balanced manner.

15. ● Set up light trap @ 1 / ha as a monitoring device.
● Release larval parasitoid, Platygaster oryzae through parasitized
galls @ 1 per 10 m2 in the main field at 10 days after
transplanting (DAT).
● Conserve predatory spiders like Tetragnatha, Argiope catenulata
and carabid beetle (Ophionia indica) in rice ecosystem.
● Apply fipronil 0.3 G 16.7 - 25.0 kg or quinalphos 25 EC 1.0 L or
ethofenprox 10 EC 500-750 ml or fipronil 5 SC 1.0 -1.5 kg or
lambda-cyhalothrin 2.5 EC 500 ml / 5 EC 250 ml or thiamethoxam
25 WG 100 g in 500 L water/ha

16. Swarming caterpillar - Spodoptera mauritia
(Noctuidae; Lepidoptera)
Host range: Rice, maize, jowar, wheat, barley and sugarcane
Symptoms:
★ Sporadic pest but causes very serious damage to young
crops when it appears in large numbers.
★ The caterpillars feed at night and hide during the day
★ Larvae cut the seedlings in large scale
★ They feed gregariously and march from field to field
★ Yield loss ranges from 10-20%
IRRI
II. DEFOLIATORS

17. Bionomics:
Adult: Medium sized stoutly built, dark
brown with a conspicuous triangular spot on
fore wings.
Eggs: Laid in masses on leaves and covered
with grey hairs.
Caterpillar: cylindrical, dark to pale green
with lateral lines along the body.
Pupa:It pupates in an earthen cocoon in soil
for 10-15 days

18. ● Conserve larval parasitoids viz., Apanteles
ruficrus, Chelonus sp.,
● Protect vertebrate predators of the larvae
● Flood the nursery to expose the hiding larvae
to the surface for birds to pick them up.
● Kerosenate water during irrigation to suffocate
and kill the larvae.
● Allow ducks into the field to feed on the larvae.
● Drain water from nursery and spray
chlorpyriphos 20 EC 80 ml during late
evening.
Management:

19. Host plant: Rice
Symptoms:
Scrapping of leaf tissues by the larva (whitish papery areas)
Form tubular cases around them by cutting the apical portion of
the leaves which float on the water.
Plants stunted, caterpillars hang on the leaf edges in a tubular
case.
Rice case worm: Nymphula depunctalis
(Pyraustidae: Lepidopera)

20. Larva:
Pale translucent green with orange head.
Each caterpillar lives inside a tubular case
and hangs down the leaves
Semi aquatic - filamental gills at the sides.
Pupa: inside the case
Adult:
The adult is a small delicate moth having
white wings speckled with pale brown
wavy markings

21. Management
❖ Conserve larval parasitoids viz., Elasmus sp., Apanteles sp., Bracon
sp.,
❖ Conserve pupal parasitoids viz., Pediobius sp., Apsilops sp.,
Eupteromalus parnarae
❖ Drain water from the field
❖ Dislodge the cases by running a rope over the young crop
❖ Apply Thiamethoxam (12.6%) + Lambda-cyhalothrin (9.5%) ZC or
Acephate 75% SP or Fipronil 5% SC or Chlorantraniliprole 18.5%
SC.

22. Leaf folder (or) leaf roller: Cnaphalocrocis medinalis
(Pyralidae: Lepidoptera)
Host range: Grasses
Symptoms:
➔ The caterpillar folds the leaves longitudinally and remains inside.
➔ Scrapes the green tissues and makes them white and dry.
➔ During severe infestation- scorched appearance
Binomics:
★ Adult; brownish with many dark wavy lines in centre and
dark band on margin of wings
★ Egg:Laid in batches, lower surface of leaves
★ Larva: pale green, transparent, actively moving caterpillar

23. CRIDA
Science source

24. Management
● Use resistant varieties like TNAU LFR 831311, Cauvery,
Akashi, TKM-6,ASD 20, VC Dhan 221, PTB 12, PTB 20, PT
321, H 4
● Clipping of affected leaves reduces the pest population.
● Trim the bunds and remove grassy weeds.
● Avoid use of excessive nitrogenous fertilizer.
● Set up light traps to attract and kill the moths.
● Release Trichogramma chilonis (@1.0 L/ha) thrice on 37, 44
and 51 DAT followed by three sprays of monocrotophos 36 SL
on 58, 65 and 72 DAT.
● Apply benfuracarb 3 G 3.3 kg or cartap hydrochloride 4 G
1.875 - 2.5 kg /ha

25. Summarize what
you’ve just learned:

26. Rice skipper: Pelopidas mathias
(Hesperiidae: Lepidoptera)
Host range: Rice, Sugarcane
Symptoms:
❖ Edges of the leaves are fastened with webbing.
❖ Backward rolling of leaves, feeding from margin inwards.
Binomics:
❏ Adult: Butterfly, brown coloured wings, curved antennae.
❏ Eggs: laid singly on the leaf blades.
❏ Larva: pale green with constricted neck

27. LSU Agcenter

28. Rice horned caterpillar: Melanitis ismene
(Satyridae, Lepidoptera)
Host range: Rice, Millets
Damage symptoms: Leaves are defoliated from the margin or tip irregularly.
Bionomics:
Egg: round white eggs singly on the leaves.
Larvae: green, slightly flattened with two red horn processes on the head and
two yellow processes in the anal end.
Pupa:greenish chrysalis, which suspends from the leaf.
Adult: The butterfly is dark brown with large wings having a black and yellow
eye like spot one on each of the fore wings.

30. Yellow hairy caterpillar: Psalis pennatula
(Lymantriidae: Lepidoptera)
Host range: Rice, grasses, wheat
Damage symptoms: Caterpillar causes defoliation
Bionomics:
Egg: Lain in masses
Larva: Yellowish brown with red stripes and orange head.
Tufts of hairs -two in the anterior and one in the posterior region
Pupa: It pupates in a pale white cocoon of silk and frass
Adult: Stout with straw coloured forewings.

31. NBAIR

32. Whorl maggot: Hydrellia sasakii (Ephydridae: Diptera)
Host range: Rice, Cyanodon dactylon and Echinochloa crusgalli
Symptoms: Yellowish white longitudinal marginal blotching with hole.
Leaves become shriveled.
Plant gets stunted and maturity is delayed.
ETL - 25% damaged leave
Bionomics:
Adult: small dull grey fly.
Maggot: 2 mm, feeds on the tender tissue inside the whorl.
Yellowish white in colour.
Science source

33. Minor Pests
Grasshopper: Hieroglyphus banian (Acrididae: Orthoptera)
Short horned grasshopper: Oxya nitidula (Acrididae: Orthoptera)
Damage symptoms: The nymphs and adults feed on leaves, flowers
and grains.
Completely defoliate the plants leaving only the mid ribs
Bionomics:
Adults: green, larger with transverse black lines on pronotum.
Egg: soil at a depth of 5 cm.
Nymph: 2.5 - 3.5 months

35. Management
○ Expose the eggs to be picked up by birds after ploughing and
trimming the bunds
○ Egg parasitoids Cacallus spp., Barycomus spp. and Seelio spp.
○ Dust the crop with 5-10% BHC (or) methyl parathion 2% or
lindane 2 D 25-30 kg/ha (or) malathion 5 D 20 kg/ha
○ Spray dichlorvos 76 EC 500 ml/ha (or) malathion 50 EC 2.5
lit/ha.

36. Spiny beetle/ Rice hispa, Dicladispa armigera
(Hispidae; Coleoptera)
Symptoms :
The mining of the grubs is clearly seen on the leaves
White parallel line is clear on the leaves
Grub:
Whitish yellow and flattened. It feeds inside the leaf tissue by
mining.
Adult:
It is dark blue or blackish in colour with spines all over the body

38. In one minute,
write the scientific
names learned from
today’s
lesson.

39. 1. Thrips: Stenchaetothrips biformis
(Thripidae; Thysanoptera)
Symptoms:
★ Nymphs and adults lacerate the tender leaves and suck the plant sap
★ yellow (or) silvery streaks on the leaves of young seedlings
★ Terminal rolling and drying of leaves from tip to base
★ Damage both in nursery and main field
★ Affected nurseries- pale yellow colour with brown tips
SUCKING PESTS

41. ● Egg: Very tiny,measures 0.25 mm long.
● Larva: Neonate larvae are transparent and towards the second molting, they
turn to pale yellow.
● Pupa: The pupa has long wing pads that reach two-thirds the length of the
abdomen.
● Adult: slender body, dark brown and 1-2 mm long. It exists in two forms,
winged or wingless.
Management:
ETL: 60 numbers in 12 wet hand passes
Grow resistant cultivars like PTB 12, PTB 20, PT 321, H 4
Spray any one of the following insecticides
○ Phosphamidon 40 SL 600 ml /ha
○ Azadirachtin 0.15% W/W 1500-2500 g/ha

42. 2. Green leafhopper: Nephotettix virescens, N. nigropictus and N.
cincticeps (Cicadellidae: Hemiptera)
Host range: Rice, millets, grasses
Symptoms:
➔ Plants become pale yellow in colour and get stunted in growth
➔ If the plants are tapped, large number of leafhoppers may be seen
jumping to water
➔ Heavy infestation - withering and complete drying of the crop
➔ Nymphs and adults exude honeydew resulting in sooty mould
development
➔ It transmits plant diseases viz., dwarfing, transitory yellowing, yellow
dwarf and rice tungro virus (RTV)

43. Nymph: Soft bodied, yellowish white in colour.
Gradually the colour changes to green
Adult: 3-5 mm long, bright green with variable
black markings; wedge shaped; characteristic
diagonal movement.
Male insect has a black spot in middle of the
forewings ; absent in females.

44. ETL: 60 Nos. / 25 sweeping – Nursery
10 Nos. / hill - Flowering stage
5 Nos. / hill - Vegetative stage
2 Nos. / hill - Tungro endemic area
Management
1. Use resistant varieties like IR 20, IR 50, CR 1009, Co 46, PTB 2, PTB 18,
IET 7301, IET 7302, IET 7303 and Vani, Vikra marka, Lalit, Nidhi.
2. Nursery should not be raised near the lamp posts.
3. Apply neem cake @ 12.5 kg/800 m2 nursery as basal dose.
4. Apply carbofuran 3 G @ 3.5 kg or phorate 10 G @ 1.0 kg or quinalphos 25
EC 80 ml or endosulfan 35 EC 80 ml per 800 m2 nursery. Maintain the
water level at 2.5 cm for 3 days after granular application.
5. Spray any of the following insecticide in 500 L water/ha
Quinalphos 25 EC 1000 ml,Lambda-Cyhalothrin 2.5 EC 500 ml or 5 EC 250 ml

45. 3. Brown plant hopper: Nilaparvata lugens
(Delphacidae: Hemiptera)
Host range: Rice, sugarcane, grasses
Symptoms:
❖ Nymphs and adults congregate at the base of
the plant.
❖ Dries up and gives a scorched appearance
called “hopper burn”.
❖ Circular patches of drying and lodging of
matured plants are typical symptoms
❖ Vector of grassy stunt, ragged stunt and wilted
stunt diseases
IRRI

46. Nymph:
Freshly hatched nymph is cottony white
and it turns purple-brown
Adult:
yellowish brown to dark brown
It has two characteristic wing morphs:
macropterous (long winged) and
brachypterous (short winged)

47. Management
❖ Use resistant varieties like Aruna, Karnataka, Karthika, Krishnaveni,
Makon, Abhey, Asha, Divya, Py 3, Co 42, Co 46, PTB 21, Jyoti (PTB 29)
and PTB 33
❖ Avoid close planting and provide 30 cm rogue spacing at every 2.5 m to
reduce the pest incidence.
❖ Avoid use of excessive nitrogenous fertilizers.
❖ Control irrigation by intermittent draining.
❖ Set up light traps to monitor

48. ★ Release of natural enemies like wolf spider, Lycosa pseudoannulata and
green mirid bug Cyrtorrhinus lividipennis.
★ Avoid use of insecticides causing resurgence such as synthetic
pyrethroids, methyl parathion, fenthion and quinalphos.
★ Drain the water before the use of insecticides and direct the spray
towards the base of the plants.
★ Spray neem seed kernel extract 5% (25 kg/ha) (or) neem oil 2% (10 L/ha).
★ Spray imidacloprid 17.8 SL 125 ml or buprofezin 25 SC 325 ml or or
acephate 75 SP 625 g or or /ha
Contd.,

49. 4. Rice earhead bug: Leptocorisa acuta
(Alydidae: Hemiptera)
Host range: Rice, Millets
Symptoms: Nymphs and adults suck the sap from individual grains
at milky stage.
Affected grains become chaffy with black spots at the site of feeding
puncture.
Yield loss 10- 40%.
Obnoxious odour emanates on disturbing the bugs in the field

50. Plantix NBAIR

51. Bionomics:
Brownish green adults, slender with long legs and antennae
Egg: 200-300 flat, dark, reddish brown eggs in rows of 10-15 on the leaves or panicles.
Management
1. Remove weeds from fields and surrounding areas to prevent the multiplication
of rice bugs during fallow periods.
2. Level fields with even applications of fertilizer and water encourage rice to
grow and develop is at the same rate. Planting fields, within a village, at the
same time (synchronous planting) also helps reduce rice bug problems.
3. Capturing rice bugs, in the early morning or late afternoon, by net can be
effective at low rice bug densities, though labor intensive.
4. Spray any one of the chemicals: Thiamethoxam (12.6%) + Lambdacyhalothrin
(9.5%) ZC or Chlorantraniliprole (10 %)+ Lambdacyhalothrin (5%) ZC

52. 5. White backed plant hopper: Sogatella furcifera
(Delphacidae: Hemiptera)
Host range: Rice, maize, millets, sugarcane, grasses
Damage symptoms: suck the sap and cause stunted growth, “Hopper
Burn”
Bionomics:
Adult: Forewings hyaline with dark veins and dark spot in the middle of
posterior edge. Adults possess a diamond like marking on the thorax.
Egg: The female lays upto 758 eggs as egg masses with 1-24 eggs in
each in leaf sheath and in the mid rib of leaves.
Nymph: nymphal period 12-17 days with five instars.

53. Lucid Apps

54. 6. Mealy bug: Brevennia rehi (Pseudococcidae: Hemiptera)
Host range: Rice, graminaceous weeds
Damage symptoms:
➔ Large number of insects remains in leaf sheath and suck the sap.
➔ Plants become weak, yellowish and stunted.
➔ Presence of white waxy fluff in leaf sheath is a typical symptom of
damage.
Bionomics:
❏ The mealy bug is small reddish white, soft-bodied
❏ It lays 126-139 eggs in the leaf sheath

55. Management
1. Parasitoids such as Adelencyrtus sp., Xanthoencyrtus sp. and
Dolichoceros sp. and coccinellid predators can be utilized.
2. Remove the grasses and trim the bunds during the main field
preparation before transplanting.
3. Remove and destroy the affected plants.
4. Spray dimethoate 30 EC 500 ml/ha in initial stages of
infestation.

56. 7. Rice black bug: Scotinophora lurida and S. coarctata (Podopidae: Hemiptera)
Host range: Rice, millets
Damage symptoms:
Both nymphs and adults suck plant sap from the culm during tillering to flowering.
The affected plants turn reddish brown or yellow.
Tillering stage - drying up of central shoot (dead heart), stunted growth and reduced tillers.
Reproductive stage - panicle development and chaffy grains (white ears).
Plants wilt, dry and turn bug burned, similar to hopper burn damage of brown plant hopper.
ETL: 10% damage at tillering stage or 5 bugs / hill

57. Bionomics: Adults are brownish black with a prominent scutellum and
pronotum having a spine on either side. 1 mm long greenish eggs are laid in
masses on the stem and leaves that turn pinkish during hatching. Brown
nymphs with yellowish green abdomen and 2-3 black scent glands.
Management
1. Keep the field free from weeds and grasses.
2. Drain the excess water from the field.
3. Set up light traps to attract and kill large number of bugs.
4. Conserve the predators viz., spiders, coccinellids and wasps to check the
pest.
5. Ducks can be allowed in the field to pick up the bugs
6. Spray NSKE 5% or monocrotophos 36 SL @ 1000 ml/ha or acephate 75 SP
@ 625 g per ha for effective pest suppression.

58. 8. Earhead stink bug / Shield bug / Red spotted bug: Menida histrio
(Pentatomidae: Hemiptera)
9. Rice striped bug: Tetroda histeroides (Pentatomidae: Hemiptera)
10. White rice leafhopper: Cofana spectra (Cicadellidae: Hemiptera)
11. Blue rice leafhopper: Empoascanara maculifrons (Cicadellidae: Hemiptera)
12. Zigzag striped leafhopper: Recilia dorsalis (Cicadellidae: Hemiptera)
MINOR PESTS