Cultural management
- Pre-monsoon deep ploughing (two/three times) will
expose the hibernating pupae to sunlight and predatory birds
- Removal and destruction of alternate wild hosts
and weeds which harbour the hairy caterpillars
- Mass collection and destruction of eggs and just
emerged caterpillars
- Place the twigs and leaves of calotropis,
jatropha and papaya around the field to trap grown up caterpillars and
destruction
- Grow trap crops like cowpea, castor and jatropha
on field bunds to attract the caterpillars
- Conserve the bio control population of spiders,
long horned grasshoppers, preying mantids, robber fly, ants, green lace
wing, damsel flies/dragon flies, flower bugs, shield bugs, lady bird
beetles, ground beetle, predatory cricket, braconids, trichogrammatids,
NPV, green muscardine fungus
- Use of NPV (nuclear polyhedrosis virus) on cloudy
days at 500 LE/ha will be effective