Tea Pests

Dear friend, let us start our discussion with a most important topic i.e. Tea pests. Today we will discuss about the importance of the pests and will try to know the names of the major pests of tea. So let's start................

As we know that tea is a perennial plantation crop and that is why it provides a favorable breeding ground for pests. Most of the tea pests attack the foliage of the crop. About 65 per cent distribution of pests were found in foliage only. The loss due to pest damage is found to be quite high. Annual crop loss due to pest infestation amount to 3 to 40 per cent.

Although the infestation or attack of different pests and their intensity varies from place to place. For example, Tea Mosquito Bug (Helopeltis theivora, Miridae) and Red Spider Mite (Oligonychus coffeae) were the major tea pests for the upper Assam region i.e. Tinsukia, Dibrugarh, Sivasagar, Jorhat and Golaghat districts of Assam. On the other hand Looper Caterpillar (Buzura (Biston) suppressaria) and Red Spider Mite were used to be the major pests for the North Bank Plain Zone of Assam.

Major Pests of Tea:

Acarina:-

1. Red Spider Mite --Oligonychus coffeae, Tetranychidae
2. Scarlet Mite -- Brevipalpus phoenicis, Tenuipalpidae
3. Pink or Orange Mite -- Acaphylla theae, Eriophydae
4. Purple Mite -- Calacarus carinatus, Eriophydae

Hemiptera:-

1. Tea Mosquito Bug -- Helopeltis theivora, Miridae
2. Tea Jassid -- Amrasca (Empoasca) flavescens, Jassidae
3. Tea Aphid-- Toxoptera aurantii, Aphididae

Thysanoptera:-

1. Thrips (Assam tea thrips) -- Scirtothrips dorsalis, Thripidae

Lapidoptera:-

1. Looper caterpillar -- Buzura (Biston) suppressaria, Geometridae
2. Red slug caterpillar -- Eterusia magnifica, Zygaenidae
   

The names written in red colour are the major pests for Assam tea.