Occurrence of polyhouse vegetable pests in Kerala

Purposive survey was conducted in 82 polyhouses comprising 13 agro-ecological zones covering 12 districts of Kerala, during 2014–16 with a view to document the pests and natural enemies associated with salad cucumber, yard long bean, tomato, chilli, amaranthus, bittergourd and cabbage. Twenty eight species of pests were recorded in the study comprising of nineteen insect pests, five plant parasitic nematodes, two each of mite and mammalian pests. The incidence of mammalian pests in polyhouse is reported for the first time. American serpentine leaf miner, Liriomyza trifolii, cowpea aphid, Aphis craccivora, leaf caterpillar, Spodoptera litura, spider mite, Tetranychus truncates and root knot nematode, Meloidogyne incognita, were the predominant ones. The natural enemies recorded were Aenasius arizonensis, Coccinella transversalis, Scymnus coccivora, Oecophylla smaragdina Carcelia sp, and Argiope aurantia.