Status of major storage pests and their naturalenemies in stored maize of selected districts ofNorthern Karnataka

Abstract

Maize is one of the major cereal crops grown for its foodand feed values. It is one of the most important staple food and cashcrops providing calories to the consumers and also income to thetraders. Traditionally, maize grains are stored by the farmers both inand outdoors for consumption and they sell it in the later months ofthe year depending on the quantity produced per household. Thestored maize is attacked and damaged by several storage pests thatlead to quality deterioration forcing the farmers to sell theircommodities at lower prices. The most important insect pests causingdamage to stored grains belongs to the order Coleoptera andLepidoptera. In order to know the major pests of stored maize withthe per cent infestation they cause in selected districts of NorthernKarnataka, a survey was carried out in different warehouses during2020-21. Mean time, surveillance was made by procuring samplesfrom Seed Unit, University of Agricultural Sciences, Dharwad. Resultsrevealed that four coleopteran and one lepidopteran insects werefound to be the common pests of stored maize in Dharwad, Davanagereand Haveri districts of Karnataka. However, Sitophilous oryzae (L.)being a key pest in all the warehouses of surveyed districts. Further,hymenopteran natural enemies belongs to four different families viz.,Pteromalidae, Braconidae, Eupelmidae and Eulopidae were recordedduring the surveillance