Management of the European red mite, Panonychus ulmi (Acari: Tetranychidae) in apple orchards of North Western Himalayan region of India

ABSTRACT

The European red mite, Panonychus ulmi, has emerged as a serious pest in apple orchards of Himachal Pradesh, India. Therefore, the present studies were conducted to use a combination of reduced dose of synthetic acaricidal concentrations along with Horticultural Mineral Oil (@ 1%) and (@ 0.5%). Results showed that the combination treatments [half concentration of the recommended acaricide (fenazaquin, fenpyroximate, spiromesifen and hexythiazox)] and Horticulture Mineral Oil (@ 1%) reduced the mite population to 1.33 mites per leaf in comparison to 37.30 mites per leaf in control. When both the acaricides and Horticulture Mineral Oil were reduced to half, the mite population was reduced to 2.33 mites per leaf, whereas the infestation in control was 22.65 mites per leaf. Further, the evaluation of the combination of hexythiazox (0.005%) + HMO (1%) was evaluated with biopesticides and popularly used acaricides under high-density apple plantation. The results revealed propargite (0.057%) as the most effective treatment being at par with hexythiazox (0.005%) + HMO 1% (1.25 and 1.45 mites/leaf, respectively). The entomopathogenic fungi, Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisopliae (2.40 and 2.55 mites/leaf, respectively) were quite effective in reducing the mite population. Among all the treatments, hexythiazox 0.005% (13.10 mites/leaf) was the least effective treatment.

KEYWORDS:

• Panonychus ulmi
• apple
• acaricides
• Horticulture Mineral Oil
• entomopathogenic fungi

Acknowledgements

The authors are highly thankful to ICAR and Dr. YS Parmar University of Horticulture and Forestry, Nauni, Solan for providing the facility to carry out the current research work.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Authors’ contribution

The authors have contributed equally towards preparation of the manuscript. The idea of the experiment was that of Dr. Bhardwaj, whereas the experiments were conducted by both the authors. The manuscript was prepared by Dr. Sharma and the final editing was done by Dr. Bhardwaj.

Availability of data and materials

The data used in the preparation of the manuscript has already been mentioned and no additional supplementary material is available for the manuscript.

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the NA [nil].