Management of the early stages of cashew stem and root borer, Plocaederus ferrugineus L. (Cerambycidae, Coleoptera)

An investigation to assess the effectiveness of some management tactics for the early stages of cashew stem and root borer (CSRB) revealed that brushing the tree trunk with a hard nylon brush during the period of study at 10-day-interval and spraying chlorpyriphos 0.3% once in a month was quite effective. It recorded 0.05 and 0.08 first instar grub/tree and 0.16 and 0.15 egg/tree in location I and II, respectively and 4 – 5% trees across two locations suffered borer infestation. Brushing the trunk at 10-day-interval or brushing followed by swabbing basal 2m tree trunk with neem oil 10% or creosote 10% were also effective up to certain level and produced similar impacts. Brushing dislodged and/or damaged the eggs on the bark, brought down the egg-density considerably and this resulted in lower number of first instar grubs hatching out to infest trees. Frass on infested tree was the most preferred site for egg laying followed by basal 2m tree trunk. Both neem oil and creosote primarily acted as adult repeller and indirectly helped to bring down the egg density on the trees