Abstract
Mealybugs are injurious to avocado in California, Chile, New Zealand, Israel, etc. Mealybugs suck phloem sap from avocado. The infested plants are found with sticky honeydew and blackish sooty mould that fouls fruit. Imidacloprid applied to the foliage was efficient in controlling Pseudococcus longispinus in Chile. Parasitic wasps are especially important in controlling outbreaks because the wasps specialize on mealybugs and reproduce rapidly. The encyrtids Acerophagus notativentris (Girault), Arhopoideus peregrinus (Compere) and Anarhopus sydneyensis Timberlake are known to parasitise longtailed mealybug. As a result of limiting aerial sprays of cotton near avocado and the release of natural enemies, the long-tailed mealybug population and its damage were greatly reduced.
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Mani, M. (2016). Fruit Crops: Avocado. In: Mani, M., Shivaraju, C. (eds) Mealybugs and their Management in Agricultural and Horticultural crops . Springer, New Delhi. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2677-2_44
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-81-322-2677-2_44
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