{"id":52462,"date":"2025-06-29T16:20:17","date_gmt":"2025-06-29T10:50:17","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/?p=52462"},"modified":"2025-06-30T18:03:52","modified_gmt":"2025-06-30T12:33:52","slug":"black-headed-caterpillar-disease","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/black-headed-caterpillar-disease\/","title":{"rendered":"Black-headed Caterpillar Disease"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2><b>Black-headed Caterpillar Disease Latest News<\/b><\/h2>\n<p><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Recently, the Chief Minister of Karnataka has sought a report from the Horticulture Department on the reported threat posed by the black-headed caterpillar (Opisina arenosella) disease to the coconut plantation across the state.\u00a0\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<h2><b>About Black-headed Caterpillar Disease<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It<\/span> <span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">causes serious damage to <\/span><b>coconut trees in both coastal and inland regions.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The caterpillars reside in silken galleries <\/span><b>built on the undersides of leaves<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> and consume the green portions, <\/span><b>reducing<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> the <\/span><b>plant\u2019s photosynthetic ability.<\/b><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The pest spreads rapidly through wind dispersal.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It <\/span><b>occurs round the year<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> with the spike in population during summer.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Control Strategy:<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> It can be controlled by using <\/span><b>neem-based pesticides<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">, root nourishment and release of Goniozus parasitoids along with integrated nutrient management.<\/span><\/li>\n<li><b>Goniozus nephantidis<\/b><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\"> is the most widely used parasitoid of Opisina arenosella. The parasitoid is being mass multiplied and released in Karnataka, Kerala and several other states.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<h2><b>Symptoms of Black-headed Caterpillar Disease<\/b><\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">It infests coconut of all age groups and is a prolific <\/span><b>feeder of coconut leaves.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">Dried up patches on leaflets of the lower leaves, only three or four youngest leaves at the center of the growth remain green.<\/span><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">In case of severe infestation the whole plantations <\/span><b>present a scorched appearance.<\/b><\/li>\n<li style=\"font-weight: 400;\" aria-level=\"1\"><span style=\"font-weight: 400;\">The attacked leaves droop, bunches buckle and the immature nuts are shed heavily, in extreme cases feeding by the caterpillar on the green nut surface is also observed.<\/span><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p><b>Source: <\/b><a href=\"https:\/\/www.thehindu.com\/news\/national\/karnataka\/black-headed-caterpillar-infestation-in-coconut-trees-cm-siddaramaiah-seeks-expert-panel-report-on-control-of-disease\/article69748272.ece\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\"><b>TH<\/b><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Black-headed caterpillar Disease causes serious damage to coconut trees in both coastal and inland regions.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":24,"featured_media":52720,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[1159,21,22,23],"class_list":{"0":"post-52462","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","8":"tag-black-headed-caterpillar-disease","9":"tag-prelims-pointers","10":"tag-upsc-current-affairs","11":"tag-upsc-prelims-current-affairs","12":"no-featured-image-padding"},"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52462","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/24"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=52462"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/52462\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/52720"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=52462"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=52462"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/vajiramandravi.com\/current-affairs\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=52462"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}