Seasonal Incidence of Major Insect Pests of Chilli and Their Correlation with Weather Parameters

Study Design: Randomised Block Design (RBD) with three (3) replications.

Place and Duration of Study: Biswanath College of Agriculture, Assam Agricultural University, Assam,India. The experiment was conducted during Rabi 2022-23.

Methodology: Suryamukhi variety of chilli from packages of practices for Organic crops of Assam was used for this investigation. Three sucking pests viz, Aphis gossypii, Scirtothrips dorsalis, Amrasca biguttula biguttula and one fruit borer Helicoverpa armigera was found infesting the chilli plants. Weather parameters such as maximum temperature, minimum temperature, average relative humidity, rainfall and bright sunshine hours were correlated with the insect populations.

Results: Aphids were positively correlated with sunshine hours (r=0.503*), thrips showed negative correlation with average relative humidity (r= -0.620*), jassids had a negative correlation with minimum temperature (r=-0.701*) and fruit borer showed negative correlation with sunshine hours (r= -0625**). Rainfall had no significant effect on incidence of pest population in chilli.

Conclusion: Insect pest populations are highly influenced by weather parameters. Through this research we can develop new pest management strategies according to their appearance and peak activity period.