Explore key strategies and challenges in protecting mulberry plants essential for sericulture. This quiz covers pest management, disease prevention, and responsible chemical use in mulberry cultivation.
A mulberry plantation shows wilting shoots and small boreholes near the stem tip. Which pest is most likely responsible for this damage?
Explanation: Shoot borers create holes and cause wilting by tunneling into young stems, which matches the symptoms described. Root aphids attack roots rather than stems. Powdery mildew is a fungal disease, not an insect pest, and causes white fungal growth, not boreholes. Silkworms feed on leaves, not stems, and do not cause wilting shoots.
What is one main benefit of regular pruning in mulberry plant management for sericulture?
Explanation: Regular pruning helps remove infested plant parts and exposes pests, limiting their habitat and populations. It does not affect soil acidity or fruit flavor, as mulberry is mainly grown for leaves, not fruit. Attracting silkworms is related to leaf quality, but pruning is for plant health and pest control.
A farmer notices brown spots with yellow halos on mulberry leaves after rainy weather. Which disease is most likely affecting the plants?
Explanation: Leaf spot disease typically shows brown lesions with yellow margins, especially after wet conditions. Nematode infestation damages the roots, root rot causes wilting and decay at the base, and aphid attack causes sap sucking and leaf curling, not brown spots with halos.
Why is it essential to follow recommended pesticide waiting periods before resuming silkworm rearing in mulberry fields?
Explanation: Following waiting periods ensures pesticide residues degrade, preventing harm to silkworms fed on mulberry leaves. Promoting leaf thickness, saving water, or increasing harvest speed are not related to pesticide waiting periods and do not address the risks to silkworm health.
Introducing ladybird beetles into a mulberry garden helps control which common pest?
Explanation: Ladybird beetles are natural predators of aphids and help reduce their populations in biological control methods. Cutworms are typically managed differently, nematodes live in soil and are not affected by ladybirds, and downy mildew is a fungal disease, not an insect pest.