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.

Aphids basically belong to Aphidoidea Family. They are small sap-sucking  insects like greenfly and blackfly.  However, they are not harmful to crops in early stage or in small or moderate numbers. Aphid’s infest severe damage to leaves and shoots and also causes damage to plant growth.

The symptoms of Alternaria blight usually occur in summer and are depicted by the presence of angular or circular spots of around 4 to 7 mm in diameter. In some bad cases, the spot become 3 cm in diameter.

Angular Leaf Spots are very easy to distinguish since the plants suffering from this develop leaf spots that follow leaf veins. It is caused by bacteria such as Pseudomonas syringae (cucurbits) and Xanthomonas fragariae (strawberries) that survive in seeds and plant debris.

Castor Semilooper achaea janata is widely distributed throughout India. Though castor is the principal host plant for them, it has also been found to be predating on tea, sugarcane, pomegranate, banana, rose, grape fruits, citrus etc.