Pest control at home [Cultural method]
Cultural methods of Pest management:
Cultural methods of insect pest management comprise the regular farm management so perform to destroy insect pest as to prevent them to cause injury. The following agricultural practice used to control the insect pest directly or indirectly:
1: Tilling and cultivating the soil:
Soil characteristics such as soil texture, chemical composition, moisture’, temp etc. directly influence the survival of soil infesting insects. They can be easily killed by exposing them to weather. Cut worms, grasshopper, cricket and other sub-terranian insects like termites, can be controlled proper tilling and cultivating, the soil.
2. Use of clear insect free seeds:
A number of insects pests are carried over from one crop to the next through seeds, cuttings or other infested plant-parts. Certified Seeds, free from insect pest & disease should be used for raising a new crop.
3. Water management by regulating irrigation:
If water is applied to the fends by flooding; a large no. of insects such as crickets, cut worms, termites etc. can be controlled similarly by draining out water from the fields. Rice cut-worm can also be controlled in this method.
4. The use of resistant variety:
It is well known that certain variety of strains of crops are less attacked by a given insect pest than other, because they are naturally resistant to those insect pest. E.g. BR-20, BR-2 variety of rice can be grown which are resistant to yellow stem borer.
5. Crop rotation and trap crops:
Crops provide food for insect pests and if food is abundance all the year round they will floweret and soon increase in number. So in order to control a particular crop, crop rotation is essential. Principle of crop rotation is to starve the pest by creating discontinuity in the supply of food.
Some early crops are sown in narrow strips around a major crop to serve as trap for the pest that are common to both the crop. E.g. lady’s finger is a good trip crop, which can be sown, near cotton to attract fassids (cotton leaf hopper) and spotted warm.
6 Pruning & thinning:
Some pests are normally carried from old crops to new one. It happens in ‘perennial plants such as fruit trees. Proper pruning and thinning of undesirable portion of mango, jackfruit, coconut, citrus etc. can keep the various kinds of plants under control.
7. Time of sowing & harvesting:
By adjusting this, the infestation by some pests can be prevented. Sugarcane should be harvested before mid-February to avoid infestation of sugarcane top shout borer
8. Destruction:
The great majority of insect pests; particularly those, which hibernate are found in a crop residues. The stables of rice and sugarcane should be ploughed up, collected and burnt, so that hibernating borers are destroyed. The old & dry cucurbit creepers and other debris, should be destroyed for reducing insect population of Epilachna beetles, red pumpkin beetle. Fruits infected at Guava, melon etc. which contains maggots of the fruit flies should be collected, brunt or buried into the soil.