Methods and Technical Key Points for Controlling the White-Backed Planthopper in Rice

Damage symptoms: Adults and nymphs gather in colonies at the base of rice plants and pierce and suck the sap, causing the leaf tips of rice leaves to lose green and turn yellow, and in severe cases the whole plant withers and dies. Damage during the heading stage can also cause difficulty in heading, blighted panicles, or browning of the panicles, along with many empty grains and other damage symptoms.

Morphological characteristics: Adults have two forms, the long-winged type and the short-winged type. The long-winged adult is 4-5 mm long, grayish yellow, with a rather narrow vertex projecting in front of the compound eyes; the face has 3 raised longitudinal ridges, with the ridges light in color and the grooves dark, black and white sharply distinct; in the center of the scutellum on the thoracic dorsum grows a pentagonal white or bluish-white spot; the two sides of the female are dark brown or grayish brown, while those of the male are black and connected at the front end; the wings are semi-transparent, with a black spot in the center of the line where the two wings meet. The short-winged female is about 4 mm long, grayish yellow to pale yellow, with short wings reaching only about half the length of the abdomen. The egg is pointed-pepper shaped, slender, slightly curved, about 0.8 mm long, milky white when first laid, later turning pale yellow, and developing 2 red eye spots. Eggs are laid in tissues such as the leaf sheath and midrib, arranged in a single row to form a mass, with the egg cap not exposed. The nymph is nearly spindle-shaped, about 2.7 mm long, milky white with gray spots when newly hatched, later pale yellow, with grayish-brown or grayish-blue markings on the dorsal surface of the body.

Control methods:

1. Agricultural control: Select rice varieties resistant to (or tolerant of) the insect, carry out scientific fertilizer and water management, and create ecological conditions unfavorable for the breeding and multiplication of the white-backed planthopper.

2. Biological control: The white-backed planthopper has many species of parasitic and predatory natural enemies at various life stages. In addition to parasitic wasps, Cyrtorhinus lividipennis, and lady beetles, there are also spiders, nematodes, and fungi that greatly suppress the occurrence of the white-backed planthopper. Protecting and making good use of natural enemies can produce obvious results in controlling the occurrence and damage of the white-backed planthopper.

3. Chemical control: According to the type of rice variety and the occurrence of the planthopper, adopt the control strategy of focusing on the peak period of young nymphs of the main damaging generation. In years and areas where the immigration of adults is especially large and concentrated, adopt the strategy of combining control of the immigrating peak adults with control of the peak period of young nymphs of the main damaging generation. Use 100 g (1 packet) of 58% Daochong Shajing per mu, diluted in 50 kg of water, and spray.