• Caterpillar bores into young fruits
• Feeds on internal contents (pulp and seeds)
• Fruit rotting and dropping

Identification of pest

• Larvae - dark brown, short and stout, covered with short hairs
• Adult - bluish brown butterfly
• Female – V shaped patch on forewing

Management

• Collect and destroy damaged fruits
• Clean cultivation as weed plants serve as alternate hosts
• Endemic areas - grow less susceptible varieties
• Adopt ETL (5 eggs/plant)
• Cover the fruit with polythene bags when the fruits are up to 5 cm
• Use light trap @ 1/ ha to monitor the activity of adults
• Insecticides: malathion 50 EC 0.1% or dimethoate 30 EC 0.06%, two rounds, one at flower formation and next at fruit set.
• Flowering stage - spray NSKE 5% or neem formulations 2 ml/1
• Apply dimethoate 30 EC 1.5 ml/1.
• Release Trichogramma chilonis at one lakh/acre.