About the Practice
Detail:

Prepare a mixture of sugar and ghee (clarified butter oil) and pour in the holes to attract ants. Ants are natural predators. Alternatively the larvae holes can also be cemented so that the insect suffocates inside or the larvae can be pulled out using a wire loop. Jadiben Bhagwanbhai Patel of the Nava Nesda village in the Deesa taluka in Banaskantha district in Gujarat controls the beetle larvae in mango with a mixture of sugar and ghee (clarified butter oil). Farmers cultivating mango use a practice to control beetle larvae that harms trees by boring into the trunk. Patel prepares a mixture of sugar and ghee (clarified butter oil) and pours in the holes to attract ants. Ants are natural predators. Alternatively the larvae holes can also be cemented so that the insect suffocates inside or the larvae can be pulled out using a wire loop.


About the Innovator

Knowledge Provider / Innovator: Jadiben Bhagwanbhai Patel
Agro-Ecological Zone: North Gujarat zone and North -West (GJ-4, GJ-5)
Address: Nava Nesda, Deesa
District: Deesa
State: Gujarat
PIN Code 385530

Practice Details

Crop: Mango
Crop Family: Cashews
Crop Scientific Name: (Mangifera indica)
Crop Vernacular Name: Keri, Aam, Heinou, Mamidi, Ambo
Formulation: Mixture
Ingredients: Sugar, Ghee (clarified butter oil), cement and wire loop


PAS 1:

"Predatory beetles eavesdrop on ants' chemical conversations to find best egg-laying sites - The lady beetle eats the scale insects tended by the ants. However, patrolling ants attack and kill adult beetles and remove all beetle eggs laid bare on ant-tended coffee plants."
https://phys.org/news/2012-08-predatory-beetles-eavesdrop-ants-chemical.html

PAS 2:

"Ants as biological control agents in agricultural cropping systems - Ants positively impact agricultural systems by rapidly consuming large numbers of pest insects, disturbing pests during feeding and oviposition, and increasing soil quality and nutrients. The ability of ants to control pest species has been recognized since the year 300 A.D. and farmers continue to conserve and promote ant populations in agricultural systems worldwide. Naturally occurring ant species in milpas, mango, citrus, coconut, cashews, and cotton control many pest insects."
https://www.researchgate.net/publication/233526783_Ants_as_biological_control_agents_in_agricultural_cropping_systems#:~:text=Ants%20positively%20impact%20agricultural%20systems,increasing%20soil%20quality%20and%20nutrients.&text=Naturally%20occurring%20ant%20species%20in,cotton%20control%20many%20pest%20insects.

PAS 3:

"Role of Ants in Pest Management" -
https://www.annualreviews.org/doi/abs/10.1146/annurev.en.37.010192.002403?journalCode=ento



GIAN Reference: GIAN/UAL/714 - Practice ID: KNW0010000000363

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