- Restricted. Asia, Oceania. In Fiji, PNG, Solomon Islands.
- Major damage reported from India, China. Reduced yields and sugar content; sooty mould growth on honeydew. Transmits Sugarcane yellow leaf virus, causing important emerging disease.
- Adults produce living young without fertilisation – males rare.
- Nymphs, oval, greenish-white or greenish-yellow, later stages covered in powdery wax; when mature, 2mm long, 1.5mm wide. Adults slightly larger, also covered in white wax. Winged adults produced when colony large or food scarce.
- Spread: aphids by flight, and on the wind. On canes, sent to the mill and sets used for planting.
- Biosecurity: risk from unofficial introductions of aphid-infested sets. Official movement of germplasm should always follow the FAO/IPBGR Technical Guidelines.
- Biocontrol: Coccinellid, Synoycha grandis, reared and released in China. Parasitoids known from Indonesia, Philippines), and predators (lacewing and pyralid moth) mass-reared (India).
- Cultural control: avoid planting sets from aphid- infested fields; apply organic fertilisers and manures rather than synthetic products; if practical, remove infested leaves; collect and burn trash after harvest.
- Chemical control: dip sets in hot-water, 50oC for 30 mins; avoid broad-spectrum insecticides; use biorational insecticides (smallholders: neem, derris, chilli, pyrethrum; alternatively, white oil, soap or horticultural oil); use mycopesticide, Metarhizium anisoliae. If ants protecting aphids, control with insecticide (e.g., synthetic pyrethroid).
Pacific Pests, Pathogens and Weeds - Online edition
Pacific Pests, Pathogens, Weeds & Pesticides
Sugarcane woolly aphid (531)
Sugarcane woolly aphid. It is also known as the white sugarcane aphid.
Ceratovacuna lanigera. It is a member of the Aphididae.
AUTHOR Grahame Jackson
Information from CABI (2021 Caractovacuna lanigera (sugarcane woolly aphid). Crop Protection Compendium. (https://www.cabi.org/cpc/datasheet/16271); and Frison EA, Putter CAJ (eds.) (1993) FAO/IBPGR Technical Guidelines for the Safe Movement of Sugarcane Germplasm. Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, Rome/ International Board for Plant Genetic Resources, Rome. (https://www.bioversityinternational.org/fileadmin/_migrated/uploads/tx_news/Sugarcane_259.pdf); and from Joshi S, Viraktamath CA (2004) The sugarcane woolly aphid, Ceratovacuna lanigera Zehntner (Hemiperta: Aphididae): its biology, pest status and control. Current Science 87(3): 307-316.
Produced with support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under project HORT/2016/185: Responding to emerging pest and disease threats to horticulture in the Pacific islands, implemented by the University of Queensland, in association with the Pacific Community.