Thrips: Leaf curling
Pest: Scirtothrips dorsalis and Rhipiphorothrips cruentatus
Symptoms
Leaf tips turn brown and get curled due to the feeding of thrips on the underside of the leaves by rasping the surface and sucking the oozing cell-sap leading to drying and shedding of flowers. Affected leaves curl upwards or downwards and inwards.
Control
Do not intercultivate crops like chilli and onion.
Remove and destroy affected plant parts.
Use of blue sticky traps @ 1trap / 10 plants.
Spray with acetamiprid 20 sp @ 0.005% to 0.01% i.e. 25 to 50 g /100 L or spinosad 45 SC @ 0.25 ml/L i.e. 25 ml/100 L or NSKE 5% or Verticillium lecani (2x108 cfu/g) @ 200 g / 100 L starting from prior to flowering at the interval of 10 days.
Spray chloropyriphos @ 0.02% or imidacloprid @ 0.04% or deltamethrin @ 0.15 or dichlorovos @ 0.05% as prophylactic or on observing the symptoms.
Spray dimethoate 0.06% prior to flowering. In severe conditions, spray methyl oxydemeton 0.05% and repeat after fruit set.