ISHS Acta Horticulturae 425: II International Pineapple Symposium
IMPACT OF WEED MANAGEMENT ON ANT DENSITY AND FRUIT YIELD IN THE CONTROL OF PINEAPPLE WILT DISEASE |
| Author: | S.F.M. Sulaiman |
| Abstract:
Pink mealybug Dysmicoccus brevipes (Cockerell) causes the pineapple wilt disease. The ant Technomyrmex albipes plays a major role in spreading the disease. The impact of three common weed management practices, as follows, on the density of ants and the fruit yield was studied: 1/ clean weeding manually, 2/ slashing with a grass slasher and 3/ either mulching with coir dust or no weeding. Clean weeded plots had the lowest ant density (2–8 per trap) and highest fruit yield (12,572 kg.ha-1). In the slash weeded and unweeded plots ant density was high (8–25 per trap, 20–100 per trap) and fruit yield was low (3,740 kg.ha-1.-2,230 kg.ha-1). Insecticidal sprays gave momentary ant control but they appeared within three weeks. Hydramethylnon ("Amdro") eliminated ants within two weeks and ants did not re-establish that soon. | |
Download Adobe Acrobat Reader (free software to read PDF files) | |
