Management of Mango Leaf Hopper

Management of Mango Leaf Hopper

Scientific Name:

Idioscopus nitidulus and Idioscopus clypealis

Damage:

1. Leafhoppers are sap-suckers. Their feeding and egg-laying on flowers cause physical injury and serious impairment of fruit development. 

2. They also secrete a sticky shiny liquid known as honeydew on which black sooty mold grows. Sooty mold interferes with photosynthesis in the leaves, reducing yield. Sooty mold can also be caused by other commonly occurring pests such as pink wax scale and mango flatid.

3. Overseas, crop losses from this pest have been up to 50%. Where the pest occurs in commercial orchards, chemical treatments are often required to produce good mango crops.

Management:

1. The hoppers can be managed by pruning of dense orchards in the month of December, orchard sanitation.

 2. 3 sprays of Ripcord 10EC (Cypermethrin) or Novastar 56EC (Bifenthrin + Abamectin) @ 01ml/Li or Haymidor / Pimidor 70WG (Imidacloprid) @ 02gm/10Li of water at the early stage of panicle formation if the population exceeds from 10 hoppers per panicle. The second spray should be given at full length of panicle but prior to full bloom and third at pea stage of fruits. 

3. Nymph predators Mallada boninensis and Chrysopa lacciperda and egg parasite Polynema sp., Gonatocerus sp. and Tetrastichus sp. are found effective in nature against the hoppers. 

4. A fungus, Verticillium lacani has also been found effective against this pest but under moderate climate.