Integrated Pest Management

Damage Symptoms   Pest Identification

 

To manage pests successfully, the problem must be identified correctly.

Pest Identification will be twofold:

  • You have a DAMAGED fruit, leaf or blossom (go to "Damage Symptoms" above)
    OR
  • You have THE PEST (weed, insect etc.) in your hand (go to "Insect Id" above)

Whichever route you take, you will be led to a diagnosis and to technical data of the pest.

All pests are divided into 6 categories.

  1. Arthropods (spiders, mites, insects)

  2. Nematodes (earthworms)

  3. Molluscs (snails, slugs)

  4. Vertebrates (rats, snakes etc)

  5. Pathogens (viruses, fungi etc)

  6. Weeds (invasive plants, grasses etc)

ARTHROPODS

 

  

ELEMENTARY DIAGNOSIS

This is not a traditional diagnostic key, but rather a tool for the novice farmer or student

 

 

Insects

 

 

mites

 

spiders

 

 

 

 

Elementary Insect Identification
Is it a flying insect?
Fruit Fly
White Fly
Brown Leafhopper
Green Leafhopper
Orange Dog Butterfly
Is it a sedentary insect - one that is not too mobile?
Mealy Bug
Cotton Cushiony Scale
Red Scale
Aphids
Soft Brown Scale
Is it a beetle or a bug?
Tip Wilter
Ladybird
Stink Bug
Is it a caterpillar?
Orange Dog Butterfly
Bollworm
Is it a very small or microscopic insect?
Thrips
Green Leafhopper
None of the above...not a major pest in the Vaalharts region
Back (to pest ID page)
Exit (to IPM home page)

 MITES

There are 3 kinds

  • Plantfeeding
    • A pest on citrus
      • Surface scarring of fruit and leaves e.g. silver mite
      • Russeting
      • Deformation of fruit and leaves e.g. budmite
  • Predatory
    • eat pest mites, pollen and fungal spores
  • Other feeding on fungi and decaying plant material

  

SPIDERS

Spiders are polyphagous. They are mainly predators.

There are 3 major groups:

  • Webbuilding
    • Sheet web with a funnel
    • Arial web, often circular
  • Plant living
    • Hunt freely
    • Remain in hiding, do not explore
    • Leap at prey
  • Ground dwelling

 
 

 

 

NEMATODES

 

Not common in the Vaalharts area, and seldom a pest

 

PATHOGENS

 

Minor pests in the Vaalharts region. 

 

Bacteria

Most bacteria cannot penetrate a cell wall, thus they must enter through a wound or injected by a vector organism

Bacteria are responsible for most “soft rots” in fruit and vegetables e.g. speck on tomatoes

 

Bacteria can be used as chemicals to treat insect pests

Baccillus thrugensis :

  • BIOBIT – orange dog
  • DIPEL  - bollworm

 

NOT IN THE VAALHATRS AREA

 

Greening  caused by psilla 

Fungi

DNA/RNA strands contained inside a protein coat, but require a host to grow and reproduce

 

 

 

Alternaria

 

 

Green mould

NOT IN THE VAALHARTS AREA

 

Black spot

Vaalharts is a Black spot free area

 Viruses

 Saprophytes: live on dead and decaying matter

Parasites: live in or on living organisms

Viruses causes abnormal growth in the host plant

 

In citrus there is 2 examples:

 

TRISTIZA   THE BAD VIRUS

·        NOT in the VAALHARTS AREA

·        a virus causing stem pitting

·        sour orange rootstock most susceptible

·        susceptible trees could die in one year

 

 

A virus has been developed for the management of the pest False Coldling moth:

                                CRYPTOGRAN       THE GOOD VIRUS

 

Phytoplasmas

They affect the vascular system in plants

 
 

MOLLUSCS

 

Snails have rarely been recorded on citrus in the Vaalharts region.

 

 

 

 

 

WEEDS

 

Most common weeds in the Vaalharts region

Broadleaf weeds

 

 

grasses

 

sedges

 

 

 

VERTEBRATES

 BIRDS

Some birds eat insects, and should be encouraged.

For example, the Guinea Fowl.

 

MAMMALS

Bats are good predators of insects

 

AMPHIBIANS

No frogs have been recorded as pests in Vaalharts

 

REPTILES

Chameleons are good predators of insects. Their numbers are increasing

 

 


None of the above

 

None of the above

If you tried all options but couldn’t find what you were looking for, it might not be a pest on citrus in the Vaalharts region.

 


 

 






 

 
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