Rice Black Bug
There are three species of black bug that infest rice that remove the sap of the plant.
What are the symptoms
Black bug that infests rice fields may cause browning of leaves, deadheart, bugburn. Symptoms include the following:
√ stunted plants, reddish brown or yellowing of plants
√ chlorotic lesions on leaves
√ reduced number of tillers
√ formation of deadhearts and whiteheads
Impact to the crop
Black bug damages rice plant starting seedling stage to reproductive stage. Ten black bug adults per hill can cause losses up to 35% in rice.
How to control
√ Use resistant varieties.
√ Maintain a clean field by removing the weeds and drying the rice field after plowing
√ Plant rice varieties of the same maturity date to break the insect’s cycle.
√ Use of mercury bulbs as light traps for egg-laying adults, light trapping of insects should start 5 days before and after the full moon.
√ Encourage biological control agents, such as small wasps (parasitize the eggs), ground beetles, spiders, crickets, and red ants (attack the eggs, nymphs, and adults), coccinellid beetles, ducks, toads (feed on eggs and nymphs), fungi species (attacks nymphs and adults).
During early infestation, raise the water level in the field for 2−3 days to force the insects to move upwards.
√ Flood the fields. This can cause higher egg mortality.
√ After harvest, plow fields to remove remaining insects.
