Olfactory Responses of the Banana Weevil, Odoiporus Longicollis (Olivier) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) Against Pseudostem and its Crude Extract

Abstract

Banana pseudostem weevil, Odoiporus longicollis (Olivier) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) is an important pest of banana (Musa spp.) plants causing heavy yield reductions throughout the world. Farmers mainly depend upon the synthetic insecticides to manage this pest, but it was more expensive and caused many problems to human being and domestic animals and also to our environment. The present investigation was carried out to study the olfactory responses of the pseudostem weevil O. longicollis against the decayed pseudostem and its extract under laboratory conditions. Banana pseudostem were allowed to decay for 1, 3, 5 and 7 days and used for the experiment. Results revealed that both 7 days decayed pseudostem (53.35%) and its extract (75.0%) has more attractant property when compared to other experimental decayed pseudostem and its extracts. The results suggest that decayed pseudostem based attractant can be used as the trapping agent for the management of O. longicollis.