Introduction:

Coconut palm, Cocos nucifera being a perennial crop is subjected to attack by an array of pest round the year. Even though there are over 750 insect species (including the ones that directly feed and those which are only associated) recorded on coconut palm, only a few are considered to be of economic importance. In recent past, occasional pest are the ones that had never been observed on the palm have become a major pest in relatively short span of time.

All parts of the palm viz ., leaves, stem, root, inflorescence and the nuts are subjected to attack by pest. Damage when caused to the leaves leads to reduction in photosynthetic efficiency and decrease in value for thatching purpose but when done to inflorescence and nuts leads to direct economic loss. Hence, to tide over the damage caused by the pest, farmer's resort to chemical control as their availability and application is done with ease. Though the use of pesticides kept the pest at check, the experience gained during the recent past indicated that improper use of pesticide has caused undesirable side effects like buildup of residue in the marketable commodity, insecticide resistance, negative impact on beneficial arthropods etc. Hence, it has become imperative to blend cultural, mechanical, physical, chemical, and biological methods for integrated approach in coconut pest management.

The pests infesting coconut and the integrated approach to combat them are discussed here under.

About the system:

This system would provide the information on coconut major pests of Rhinoceros beetle, Red weevil, Leaf eating caterpillar, White grub, Coconut eriophyid mite and minor pests of Coried bug, Mealy bug, Slug caterpillar, Green caterpillar, N ut borer, Shot hole borer, Termite and rodents. Information on other vertebrate pests like Palm civet, Wild boar and Monkey are also provided. User can select the dropdown menu of the mandate crops coconut, arecanut and cocoa for the respective pests and its details. After selecting a particular crop and pest then click go button for displaying the search results of lifecycle, infected host, damage, management and image thumbnail galleries. Along with this pest database, a provision is made for the literature search by using keywords.