March 2019

Its primary symptoms appear during the spring as small grey or brown flecks on young fruits.

As soon as summer starts, these flecks have developed into small, sunken, brown lesions, sometimes surrounded by a conspicuous red halo.

In the early stage of hairy caterpillars have long white hairs coming from the flanks of their body. Their main feed is leaves of mango trees in groups and several other tree species.

American bollworm has been identified to attack more than 180 host plants. These host plants include beans, maize, tomato, legumes etc. It has caused so much damage to the fields and has developed resistance to so many insectides that it has been popularly given the name of a global pest.