Abstract

The rice gallmidge Pachdiplosis oryzae W., is one of the serious pests of rice crop in many parts of India and other rice growing countries namely Burma, Ceylon, China, Thailand, Vietnam, etc. The tiny maggots of this mosquito like fly, feed around the base of the growth cone of the terminal or axillary shoot apices and thus result in the formation of the characteristic tubular galls called "silver shoot". The chemical control of the pest has been attempted by several workers in India and abroad. Patel and Bhat (1954) found parathion and chlordane to be useful in reducing the infestation of gallmidge. Israel (1956) reported that four rounds of sprays of 0.08% parathion or 0.04% endrin to be effective in controlling the pest. The application of mineral oil saturated with dieldrin, chlordane as well as the use of 5% pellets of dieldrin had also been reported to give better results for control of the gallmidge (Patel et al., 1957). Krishnamoorthy Rao et al., (1960) found 0.1% Rogor and 0 02 or 0.04%. Endrin to be promising for controlling the gallmidge. Ow and Kanjanaoon (1961) reported that the application of malathion and cuprovit to the plots increased rice yield, mainly by the reduction of gallmidge incidence in the crop. In the present investigations carried out at the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Aduthurai the efficacy of some of the modern insecticides were tested for control of the pest. The results of the studies are presented in this paper.

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