What Is the Banana Skipper? A Detailed Guide to Control Methods
What is the banana skipper and how do you control it? Please explain the methods. The banana skipper, also known as the banana leaf roller or banana leaf nest worm, belongs to the order Lepidoptera, family Hesperiidae. It is distributed in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Fujian, Yunnan and Taiwan, China, and is a major pest of banana plants. When outbreaks are severe, not a single leaf on the whole plant remains intact, with leaf nests piled up everywhere, seriously...
What is the banana skipper and how do you control it? Please explain the methods.
The banana skipper, also known as the banana leaf roller or banana leaf nest worm, belongs to the order Lepidoptera, family Hesperiidae. It is distributed in Guangdong, Guangxi, Hainan, Fujian, Yunnan and Taiwan, China, and is a major pest of banana plants. When outbreaks are severe, not a single leaf on the whole plant remains intact, with leaf nests piled up everywhere, seriously affecting growth and fruiting.
The adult is entirely blackish brown or tea brown. The mature larva has a body covered with white waxy powder, and a blackish brown head that is slightly triangular, larger in the middle.
In South China, this pest has 4 to 5 generations a year, overwintering as mature larvae inside the leaf nests. Adults are active in the early morning and at dusk. Eggs are laid singly on the upper and lower surfaces of banana leaves as well as on the petioles and young stems. After hatching, the larva crawls to the leaf edge, bites a notch, and then spins silk to roll it into a tubular leaf nest in which to hide. When feeding, it starts from the opening where the upper end of the leaf nest connects to the leaf blade, feeding while rolling the leaf, enlarging the leaf nest.
Control methods include:
1. Hand picking. Remove the leaf nests promptly and kill the larvae or pupae inside; when egg grains are seen, cut off the leaf together with them and destroy them in a centralized manner.
2. Chemical control. During the young larval stage, use 0.5 kg of 90% trichlorfon, add 400 kg of water, and spray the leaves in the evening.
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