Pest Control using Bark Pesticide Applicator (BPA) in Citrus Plants

Abstract

As a citrus pest, Toxoptera sp. is classified as the main pest because the impact of the attack causes losses to the quantity and quality of the yield. Alternative pest control within insecticides in addition to using a knapsack sprayer or power sprayer is using Bark Pesticide Applicator (BPA), which is a tool to apply systemic pesticides through citrus stems optimally and serves to improve the efficiency of controlling main pests, safe for natural enemies, and environmentally friendly. The study was conducted at the Experimental Farm of the Indonesian Citrus and Subtropical Fruits Research Institute, Batu City, East Java, Indonesia from January to May 2018. This study compared the effectiveness of pesticide application devices using BPA and Power Sprayer (PS). The treatment was arranged using a randomized block design and repeated ten times. The test results showed that the application of pesticides with BPA was able to control aphids up to 93.84 % while PS was only able to suppress 29.48 %. Whiles the existence of natural enemies can be saved if the application of pesticides is carried out using BPA