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Gundhi Bug (Leptocorisa acuta)

Also known as rice gundhi bug or rice earhead bug, it is a major pest of rice, particularly during the milky stage of grain development.


🐛 Damage Symptoms:

Feeds on developing grains at milky stage using its piercing-sucking mouthparts.

Grains become chaffy or empty.

Emits a characteristic stinky odor.

May also cause discoloration and poor grain quality.


📉 Damage Percentage:

Damage can range from 5% to 30%, but under severe infestation, it can go up to 75% chaffy grains, leading to significant yield loss.

Economic threshold level (ETL):
🔸 1 bug/m² or 5 bugs per 100 earheads at milky stage.

Integrated Pest Management (IPM) for Gundhi Bug:

1. Cultural Practices

Early planting to escape peak infestation.

Clipping of rice leaves at booting stage (removes hiding spaces).

Remove alternate host weeds from bunds and nearby fields.

Synchronize sowing across nearby fields to break pest cycle.


2. Mechanical Control

Hand collection in small fields early morning when bugs are less active.

Use light traps at night to reduce population.

Shake plants over a net or tray and kill the fallen bugs.


3. Biological Control

Encourage natural enemies like:

Spiders

Predatory ants

Egg parasitoids like Gryon spp.



4. Chemical Control (if population crosses ETL):

Spray at milky stage:

Malathion 5% dust @ 25 kg/ha

Malathion 50 EC @ 500 ml/ha in 500 liters water

Chlorpyrifos 20 EC @ 2.5 ml/liter water

Fipronil 5 SC @ 2 ml/liter



👉 Do not spray insecticides after the dough stage to avoid residue in grains.


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