Borers in Horticultural Crops

Insect borers are emerging as major pests in horticulture especially perennial crops. They cause significant yield losses ranging from 30-50% and often in case of trees, result in complete death (5 - 10% per year), which translates into lakhs of rupees based on the economic importance of the trees, across the country. As borers are cryptic in their larval stages, initial damage goes unnoticed. Control interventions are still not effective. Farmers resort to large scale and frequent insecticidal sprays resulting in undesired effects like build-up of resistance, resurgence of secondary pests and residues on finished products and gross environmental pollution. Infested trees, even if mechanically disinfested, fail to recover on account of bark / tissue / wood injury and secondary pathogens. Thus borer management is a major challenge and is a critical need of the hour.