Detail:

The farmers of Bavikeri village in the Ankolataluka of Karnataka have devised a simple manner to keep away pests from paddy. They burn heaps of paddy husk in the field at night. The pests get attracted towards light and die by falling into the fire. Alternatively (Sphaeranthus indicus) plant is also used as a repellent to stop pests in paddy. The leaves of the plant are spread in the fields. The peculiar smell of this plant has the property of repel insects like leaf rollers and hoppers. The peculiar smell of this plant has the property of repel insects like leaf rollers and hoppers.

Knowledge Provider / Innovator: Sri. MahadevaSheshuNayak and Sri TekugaruNayak
Agro-Ecological Zone: Hilly zone, Coastal Zone (KA-9& KA-10)
Address: Bavikeri, Ankola, Uttar kannada, Karnataka
District: Ankola
State: Karnataka
PIN Code 581321

Formulation: The burning heaps of paddy husk, (Sphaeranthus indicus)
Ingredients: Paddy husk and the leaves of the Sphaeranthus indicus plant

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PAS 1:

"Repellent activity of different solvent extract of A. vulgaris, S. indicus, T. purpurea and P. juliflora were tested at 2.5 and 5% concentrations against T. castaneum. The result indicates variation among the plant extracts against the selected insect pest. In general, majority of the extracts showed attractant activity at lower concentration at 1 hr duration. But the trend had changed when the duration and concentrations increased. Highest activity was observed at higher concentration of the all the plant extract." [Pugazhvendan, S.R. & Ross, P. &Elumalai, Kuppusamy. (2012). Insecticidal and Repellant Activities of Four indigenous medicinal Plants Against Stored Grain Pest, Triboliumcastaneum (Herbst) (
Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae). Asian Pacific Journal of Tropical Disease. 2. S16–S20. 10.1016/S2222-1808(12)60116-9.]
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/257746771_Insecticidal_and_Repellant_Activities_of_Four_indigenous_medicinal_Plants_Against_Stored_Grain_Pest_Tribolium_castaneum_Herbst_Coleoptera_Tenebrionidae

PAS 2:

"Two main conclusions can be reached from this study. First, the low intensity prescribed fires employed across the southeastern United States appear to have minimal direct effects on wood-dwelling beetles, ants and termites but responses at the species level are variable. Repeated fires over long periods of time have the potential to result in significant changes to saproxylic insect assemblages. Second, interactions among these three groups of insects are primarily neutral or positive in nature, with negative interactions being significantly less common. It should be noted that this study was based on just one fire at a single site in the southeastern United States. The effects of fire on wood-dwelling insects are likely to vary greatly depending on a variety of site and fire-specific parameters including fire intensity, frequency and seasonality. Despite this limitation, this study provides valuable insights into how fire impacts insects inhabiting dead wood as well as patterns of co-occurrence among this fauna. Future studies testing these questions with more intense fires or in less fire-adapted systems would be of great interest." [Ulyshen, M.D., Lucky, A. & Work, T.T. Effects of prescribed fire and social insects on saproxylic beetles in a subtropical forest. Sci Rep 10, 9630 (2020).
https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-66752-w]
https://www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-66752-w#citeas