Water jetting: an eco-friendly pest management technique in mulberry
Published on by Water Network Research, Official research team of The Water Network in Technology
"Unlike foreign countries many here do not take precautionary measures like closing their nose and mouth with a piece of cloth, wearing gloves etc. We have also observed that mulberry farmers experience monetary loss because the silkworms often die without forming cocoons due to the residual toxic effect of insecticides sprayed," says Dr. N. Sakthivel, Scientist, Research Extension Centre, Central Silk Board, Srivilliputtur.
In order to overcome these problems the research extension of the silk board developed a water jetting package which attempted to apply the physical force of water against the sucking pest menace in mulberry cultivation and succeeded.
Water jetting — using a high volume sprayer — is an old recommendation but became unpopular among the farmers because it required huge quantity of water at the spraying spot. It is an expensive method and required a lot of time and labour.
But in the present method irrigation water is diverted from the main pipeline to a one- inch garden hose with the help of suitable adaptor and gate-valve for jetting.
Therefore, the farmer gets an uninterrupted supply of water as well as sufficient flow quantity to generate adequate water pressure to hit the pests lethally and wash them out from the plants.
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