Pacific Pests, Pathogens & Weeds - Mini Fact Sheet EditionCocoa pod borer (175)
Pacific Pests, Pathogens & Weeds - Mini Fact Sheet EditionCocoa pod borer (175)
Summary
- Widespread distribution. South and Southeast Asia, Oceania. Cocoa, Pacific lychee, rambutam, and cola are hosts. An important pest.
- The borer is a moth. Eggs laid on the pods 2-6 weeks before maturity; the larvae hatch, tunnel into the pod and feed around the beans. Pods ripen early.
- Considered one of the worse pest of cocoa, with losses of 20-50%.
- Biosecurity: follow international guidelines. Several biotypes; non-pest strains in some Pacific island countries.
- Cultural control: prune every 6 months to create open canopy on trees only 3 m high; pick pods as soon as yellow, and every 7 days, to interrupt life cycle of the moth; bury infested pods; area control is important, i.e., farmers in an area should all apply control measures simultaneously, otherwise moths will come from adjacent infested farms.
- Chemical control: none recommended.
Common Name
Cocoa pod borer
Scientific Name
Conopomorpha cramerella. It was previously known as Acrocercops cramerella.
AUTHOR Grahame Jackson
Information from New Agriculturist on-line. (http://www.new-ag.info/00-1/develop/dev01.html); and from CABI (2015) Conopomorpha cramerella (cocoa pod borer) Crop Protection Compendium. (https://www.cabi.org.cpc/). Photos 1&2 End MJ, Daymond AJ, Hadley P Eds (2010) Technical guidelines for the safe movement of cacao germplasm (Revised from the FAO/IPGRI Technical Guidelines No. 20). Global Cacao Genetic Resources Network (CacaoNet), Bioversity International, Montpellier, France. Photo 3 Smilja Lambert ABC Rural Foreign aid to fight cocoa bug (2012). Photo 4 Cocoa pod borer. Department of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, Queensland Government.
Produced with support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under project PC/2010/090: Strengthening integrated crop management research in the Pacific Islands in support of sustainable intensification of high-value crop production, implemented by the University of Queensland and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.
This mini fact sheet is a part of the app Pacific Pests, Pathogens & Weeds
The mobile application is available from the Google Play Store and Apple iTunes.
Copyright © 2020. All rights reserved.