Influence of Weather Parameters on Seasonal Incidence of Major Pests of Pomegranate, Punica granatum L. in Western Maharashtra

The field experiments were conducted on pomegranate orchard at Mahatma Phule Krishi Vidyapeeth, Rahuri during the year 2005 and 2006 to study the seasonal incidence of insect pests and their correlation with weather parameters. Seasonal incidence of insect pests was recorded at each meteorological week from July 2005 to June 2006 covering three pomegranate seasons called Mrig bahar (July to October), Hasta bahar (November to February) and Ambia bahar (March to June). Occurrence of insect pests viz., fruit borer, thrip, aphid, whitefly, mealy bug and scale insect was noticed, but the intensity of scale insects was negligible (0.01 to 0.49/twig). Relatively, Mrig bahar season was more favourable to the infestation of fruit borer (10.82%) and thrips (4.36/fruit). However, incidence of aphids (39.58/shoot) in Hasta bahar, and mealy bugs (5.29/fruit) and whiteflies (4.72% inf. leaves) in Ambia bahar was maximum. Among different meteorological parameters relative humidity and temperature were most related causing the fluctuation in infestation of noted pests.