Challenge your knowledge of effective chilli pest management strategies, identification, and safe controls essential for successful horticulture. Explore practical examples to safeguard chilli crops from common threats.
When tiny green insects cluster on new chilli shoots causing leaf curl and honeydew, which pest is most likely responsible?
Explanation: Aphids are small, soft-bodied insects commonly seen in clusters on fresh chilli growth and excrete sticky honeydew, leading to curled leaves. Thrips and red spider mites may affect chilli but produce different symptoms such as stippling or webbing. Bacterial wilt is a disease, not an insect pest, and presents with sudden wilting rather than visible clustering insects.
Which method is recommended as an eco-friendly way to manage the chilli fruit borer larvae in fields?
Explanation: Physical removal and destruction of infested fruits lowers chilli fruit borer populations without chemicals. Deep irrigation is ineffective against borers, rock salt can harm plants and does not target pests, and dusting flour does not control fruit borers or their larvae.
Before applying insecticides for sucking pests on chilli, what is the most important safety step?
Explanation: Reading label instructions ensures correct, safe, and legal application of any pesticide. Doubling doses is dangerous and illegal, household soap may cause phytotoxicity, and spraying in peak heat can increase risks to users and damage plants.
What is a core principle of integrated pest management (IPM) in chilli cultivation?
Explanation: IPM uses a mix of biological, cultural, and chemical tools to manage pests sustainably and reduce risk. Routine spraying without need wastes resources and can cause resistance; plastic mulch helps with weeds, not pest management; eliminating all insects is not practical and harms beneficials.
When chilli leaves show silvery streaks and become distorted, which pest is most likely the cause?
Explanation: Thrips feed by rasping and sucking, producing silvery streaks and distortion on chilli leaves. Root knot nematodes attack roots, not leaves. Whiteflies result in yellow specks and honeydew, while leaf hoppers cause leaf hopping and yellowing but not typical silver streaks.