Thrips

Symptoms

• Thrips feed on leaves, flower stalk and flowers.
• These suck the sap and damage the whole plant.
• Sometimes, these are associated with a contagious disease known as 'bunchy top', where the inflorescence is malformed.

Management

• Give sufficient irrigation as plants lacking irrigation are most susceptible.
• Hang blue sticky traps to attack and catch insect.
• Place plastic or paper mulch in the soil to suppress the emergence of pupae from the soil.
• Spray neem garlic emulsion (20 ml neem oil + 20 gram garlic paste + 5 gram bar soap/litre of water).