Preventive control
Natural enemies
Parasitoids
- Braconid
- Tachinid fly
Predators
- Dragonfly
- Damselfly
- Spider
Monitoring
Monitor rice field from seedling to dough grain stage.
To monitor for BPH, select 20 hills randomly. Tap plants with hands and count the mature nymphs that fall in the water.
Visual counting, sweep nets, and sticky traps can be used to monitor BPH population. The threshold level is more than 1 mature nymph/hill (Reissig; et. al. 1986: pp. 175-192).
Management and cultural practices
- Practice synchronized planting by planting rice at the same period like the other farmers in your area.
- Plant rice only two times a year to have a rice free period. This will suppress the rice brown leafhoppers (BPH) population.
- Uproot, burn, or plow-under infected rice stubbles, ratoons, weeds and other plant residues (IRRI, 2001).
- Plant BPH rice resistant varieties. These varieties produce toxic chemicals against BPH (IRRI, 2001). Ask for assistance from your local
agriculturist office or agricultural technicians since these varieties are now available in the markets.
- Prepare seedbeds away from weedy or grassy areas. Get rid of weeds and grasses surrounding rice fields. Seedbeds must be located in areas not near to sources of light in homes or electric posts so as not to attract adult BPH (IRRI, 2001).
- Drain rice field 3-4 days during the early stage of infestation (IRRI, 2001).
- Split nitrogen application 3 times; during seedling, tillering, and panicle initiation. BPH love green succulent leaves (IRRI, 2001).