Understanding and Types of Pests in Plants

Understanding and Types of Pests in Plants

Have you ever seen stems and leaves damaged and fruit rotting or becoming hollow? all of that because of pests in plants. On this occasion, here will review the complete pests in plants. Therefore, let’s look at the reviews below.

Pests are animals that disturb or damage plants so that growth and development in plants are disturbed. Pests can damage crops directly or indirectly. Disruption or pest attack can occur from seed, nursery, harvesting, to storage.

The disturbance and attack can hinder plant growth and development. There are many kinds of pests that attack plants, such as leafhoppers, gangs, rats, earthworms, fruit flies, stink bugs, and lice. In addition, plants can also be attacked by various diseases. Plant diseases can be caused by viruses, bacteria, fungi, and algae.

Types of Pests in Plants

Planthopper

The planthopper is a type of ladybug that attacks plants and causes the leaves and stems to become hollow. If the attack is severe, the leaves will turn yellow, dry, and eventually die. Planthopper can be controlled chemically, for example by spraying with insecticides. Spraying with pesticides must use long sleeves, gloves, face mask (mask), hat, shoes, and do not try to go against the wind.

Crickets

Crickets is an animal that often attacks young plants, for example on plants that have just been moved from the nursery. Crickets bite causes the plant to die because the stem breaks or breaks. The cut at the base of the stem is usually not eaten but simply cut off.

Crickets attacks usually occur at night. Crickets burrows in the ground to a depth of 90 cm with a characteristic feature of a mound of soil on the surface of the burrow. Prevention that can be done, among others, by not planting seeds that are too young because they like gangsir. The control of Crickets can be done by pouring an insecticide solution on the gangsir and then covering it with soil.

Mice

Rats are plant pests that are very detrimental to farmers because they cause the following:

  •     Attacking plants during the nursery, growth, flowering, harvest, and storage period.
  •     Difficult to control because it has good adaptability.
  •     Has a high ability to breed and spread quickly. Female rats can give birth to 4 to 12 cubs in one reproductive cycle.
  •     Eat plant parts such as seeds, plant tubers, and fruit.

In addition, mice also damage the stems of plants. Signs of rat attack include plant damage, traces and droppings of rats, traces of cuttings on plants damaged by rats, and rat burrows.

Fruit flies

Fruit flies usually attack plants during the rainy season. The female fly pierces the fruit with an egg laying device to insert the eggs into the pulp. The eggs will hatch and become maggots that eat the fruit so that the fruit will rot and spoil.

Fruit fly control can be done in the following ways.

  •     Environmental sanitization by cleaning all loose fruit.
  •     Installation of traps in the form of sex pheromones.
  •     Spraying insecticide alternately. This spraying is carried out in the morning when there is still dew.

Grasshoppers

Grasshoppers is an insect pest of rice plants. Each time they lay eggs, a female insect can produce 100-200 eggs. The eggs are laid on the flag leaves of the rice plant. The eggs that have hatched will become nymphs which are green in color and will gradually turn brown. The nymphs and imago attack the rice fruit that is ripe with milk by sucking the fruit juice, causing the fruit to become hollow. Control of brown planthoppers can be done by planting simultaneously, sanitizing the affected plants, or by spraying insecticides with the appropriate dose.

Artona

These pests include lepidoptera (butterflies that destroy plants during the larval stage). Artona is a pest for coconut plants. The newly hatched caterpillars attack by causing a symptom of attacking dots on the leaves. After a little bit, the caterpillars will cause symptoms of attack lines on the leaves. Furthermore, a caterpillar that is large enough to eat the coconut leaves along with the bones of the leaves so that the coconut leaves only have the lid. Control of this artona is done by trimming the affected coconut leaves so that the caterpillars and cocoons are also wasted. Biological control by releasing the parasite Apanteles artonae. In large cropping areas, spraying can be done with a systemic insecticide solution or stomach poison.

 

How to Overcome Pests in Plants

In general, the control and eradication of plant pests can be carried out in two ways, namely chemically and biologically.

 

Chemically

Chemical pest control is one of the efforts to control the growth of plant pests using pesticides, which are chemical plant pests. Pesticides consist of insecticides, larvacides, fungicides, and algasides.

  •     This insecticide is used to eradicate insects (insects).
  •     Larvicides are used to eradicate larvae (caterpillars).
  •     This fungicide is used to eradicate fungi (fungi).
  •     This algae is used to eradicate algae (algae).

The use of pesticides must be done carefully and carefully follow the rules of use. This is because pesticides are made from dangerous chemicals.

 

Bilogically

Biological pest eradication is one of the efforts to control plant pests by using natural predatory agents.

Examples of various plant pest predators include stinging bees, weaver ants and owls.

  •     Artona butterfly caterpillars are eradicated by animals such as stingers.
  •     Fleas are eradicated by weaver ants.
  •     Rats were eradicated by owls.