Second Field Visit

On 24th February at around 10 AM, exactly a week later we visited the same field again. This time our objective was to perform a blitz survey and make a list of all the pest we might detect today. As it’s a research field the field was clean and neat, the sky was clear and sunny and it didn’t rain for the last one week. The researcher had installed a thermometer too, the temperature at that moment was 20 °Celsius. The cauliflower seedlings has grown by few inches. We divided ourselves in groups of two and inspected the field.

We observed more than ten colonies of cabbage aphids spread across the field. Each aphid colony had more than thirty aphids and discoloration of leaves surrounding the aphids was also noticed. Like previous observations the aphid colonies established their colonies on ventral side of the leaves. The fields surrounding this field also reported numerous cabbage aphid infestation and an increase in lady bug population. The bunds between the upper and this field had conifer plants (Esp. Bidens pilosa) which could be an alternate host. We also counted more than fifty lady bugs. Some red ants had damaged a cauliflower plant and upon closer inspection we found red ants. A heavy infestation of cut worm was also observed, about twenty cut worms were counted. There were obvious signs of cutworm damages on some plants, as there were sliced trunks lying around on the beds. A green shield bug in one of the plants was observed too.

References: National plant protection centre. (2017). Agriculture pest surveillance manual.