Crop problems can be caused by other living organisms, like rats and fungus, or by non-living factors,

such as wind, water, temperature, radiation, and soil acidity.

The best control for pests and disease problems is prevention. To limit pest and disease damage:

list-step-1 Practice good cleaning of equipment and field between seasons

list-step-2 Use clean seeds and resistant varieties

list-step-3 Plant at the same time as your neighbors

list-step-4 Do not over apply fertilizer

list-step-5 Encourage natural pest enemies

list-step-6 Do not apply pesticide within 40 days of planting

list-step-7 Properly store grain

Rats

In Asia, rats cause an average of 5−10% loss in rice yield every year. Rats breed at an alarming rate when
food is abundant. One female rat can produce 35 rats in a season. Rat management is critical before the
breeding cycle, otherwise, the population can explode and yields will be greatly reduced.

Rats do not like wide, open spaces because they are more vulnerable to attack from predators.
They like to hide and burrow in weedy areas near major irrigation canals, in village gardens, and in other
non-crop areas which provide good cover.

Before planting is the best time to organize community rat control campaigns. These can be done until
three weeks after planting.

Effective community control

Management actions

Flooding, digging, or fumagating rat burrows

Scare rats out of areas with high vegetation cover or around villages (using netting, dogs, clubs, and
others to catch rats)

Use dogs to locate active rat burrows, then do Step 1

Hunt rats at night using flashlights, clubs, bow and arrows, and netting

Set local kill-traps along runways of rats

Use registered rat poisons that are placed in covered bait stations (but not where children, pets, or
livestock have easy access).

Timing of community rat control

pests-rat-flamethrowingEarly action is most effective, when rats are not breeding. Community rat
campaigns are best done within the first 3 weeks after planting.

Rats can breed very quickly. In Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, in lowland irrigated rice, the rice field
rat breeding cycle coincides with an abundance of food during the active tillering stage of rice. If there is
one crop per year the rats breed once; if there are two crops per year, the rats breed twice. Usually, rats
will produce two or three litters of 5−10 pups per cropping season, none of which will breed in that
season.

The removal of one female rat before she breeds is equivalent to killing 35 rats when the crop is at the
ripening phase.

Insects
More than 100 species of insects are considered pests in rice production systems globally, but only
about 20 species cause significant economic damage. The recommended control of insect pests is to

develop and follow an Integrated Pest Management plan.

Generally, it is not recommended to spray in the early stages of crop growth (0−40 DAP) because the
plant can recover from much of the damage without any loss to yield.

In the early stages of the rice crop, several common insects such as the leaffolder, whorl maggot, and
armyworms can cause highly visible damage symptoms; however, the damage is rarely enough to
reduce yield because the crop can compensate for early damage over the rest of the growing season.

In most cases, insecticides applied in rice fields during the early crop stages to control leaffolders or
whorl maggots are unlikely to benefit farmers economically. Instead, they can cause an imbalance in the
natural insect population that may lead to pest outbreaks.

Disease

Disease damage to rice can greatly reduce yield. They are mainly caused by bacteria, viruses, or fungi.
Planting a resistant variety is the simplest and, often, the most cost effective management for diseases.

Golden apple snail

The golden apple snail was introduced into Asia during the 1980s from South America as a potential
food for people. Unfortunately, the golden apple snail has become a major pest of rice having spread to
the Philippines, Cambodia, Thailand, and Vietnam.

There are more than 100 species of apple snail that exists.

Two species, Pomacea canaliculata and Pomacea maculata, commonly known as Golden Apple Snails,
are highly invasive and cause damage to rice crops.

They were introduced to Asia, from South America, in the 1980s as potential food for people, but it
unfortunately became a major pest of rice.

What it does
Golden apple snails eat young and emerging rice plants. They cut the rice stem at the base, destroying
the whole plant.

Why and where it occurs

Snails are able to spread through irrigation canals, natural water distribution pathways, and during
flooding events.

When water is absent, apple snails are able to bury themselves in the mud and hibernate for up to six
months
. When water is re-applied to fields, snails may emerge.

They damage direct wet-seeded rice and transplanted rice up to 30 days old. Once the rice plant reaches
30−40 days, it will become thick enough to resist the snail.

How to identify

To distinguish golden apple snails from native snails, check its color and size.

Golden apple snails have muddy brown shell and golden pinkish or orange-yellow flesh. They are bigger
and lighter in color compared to native snails. Its eggs are bright pink in color.

golden-apple-snail-egg golden-apple-snail-2

Egg mass Golden apple snail

To confirm snail damage, check for missing hills, cut leaves, and cut stems.

Why is it important

The golden apple snail is considered a major problem of rice.

If no control measure is taken, they can completely destroy 1 m2 of field overnight. This damage could
lead to more than 50% yield loss.

How to manage

The critical time to manage golden apple snails is during land preparation and crop establishment or
planting; specifically, first 10 days after transplanting (DAT), and during the first 21 days after direct wet-
seeding.

After this, the crop is generally resistant to snail damage and snails are actually beneficial by feeding on
weeds.

Community-based snail management

To best control the snail, communities should work together to reduce snail numbers in their area.

Conduct mass snail and egg collection campaigns, involving the whole community, during land
preparation and planting or crop establishment.

Keep fields drained as much as possible during the vulnerable stages of the rice plant (below 30 days) or
transplant 25−30 day old seedlings from low density nursery beds.

Biological control

Encourage natural predators.

Red ants feed on the snail eggs while ducks (and sometimes rats) will eat young snails. Several wild bird
species have also adapted to feed on golden apple snails and domestic ducks can be put into fields
during final land preparation or after crop establishment when plants are big enough (e.g., 30−35 DAT).

Snails can also be harvested, cooked and eaten or sold as animal feed. However, it is important to take
extra care and cook the snails thoroughly, as they are known carriers of the rat lungworm.

Cultural control
Handpick snails

Handpick snails and crush egg masses. This is best done in the morning and afternoon when snails are
most active. Place bamboo stakes to provide sites for egg laying that allows easy collection of snail eggs
for destruction.

You can also use attractants or plants that attract snails, such as papaya and cassava leaves, to make
hand picking easier.

Manage water

Apple snails have difficulty moving in less than 2 cm of water. Keep water level below 2 cm during the
vulnerable stages of the rice plant.

Construct small canals or canalettes (e.g., 15−25 cm wide and 5 cm deep) after the final land
preparation. Pull a sack containing a heavy object around the edges of rice paddies or at 10−15 m
intervals. Canalettes facilitate drainage and act as focal points for snails making manual collection or
killing easier.

Chemical control

Sometimes chemical control may be needed if other practices fail. Check locally available products that
have low toxicity to humans and the environment.

Following normal fertilizer application rate and schedule, apply fertilizer in 2 cm of water to maximize
negative effects on apple snails.

Apply products only to low spots and canalettes rather than to the whole field. Always ensure safe
application.

If used, molluscicides should only be used immediately after transplanting or during the seedling
establishment phase in direct seeded rice; and only for rice younger than 30 days old.

Birds
Birds are considered to be a pest of rice but little is known about exactly how much damage is caused by
birds. Only a few species of birds are grain eaters and others eat insects, worms, or snails.

Out of more than 70 species of bird found in rice fields, only five species in the Philippines (and about 14
in Southeast Asia) are known to feed on rice.

What it does

Rice-eating birds chew rice grains, and can cause whitehead or unfilled panicles.

They either squeeze the grains during the milky phase, or eat the entire grain once mature. The damage
shows a milky white substance covering the grains.

Why and where it occurs

Birds become a problem from ripening phase—when the rice plant is already developing and filling in
grains—until harvest.

Some species will feed off of the panicles by either landing upon them, by perching on nearby objects
(such as fences or posts) or by eating the dropped grain on the ground when fields are harvested. Bird
pest species are most abundant during this time.

How to identify

Check for presence of milky substance on chewed grains, and for whiteheads with removed grains.

Whiteheads can also be caused by stem borer. To confirm the cause of damage:

in bird damage, not all grains are chaffy

in stem borer damage, all grains in a panicle are chaffy and the panicle can be pulled out easily

Why is it important

Birds chew seeds in the milky stage of the crop. The damage caused due to perching birds on the
panicles results in some crop loss.
How to manage

It is important to consider the type of management to apply to your field. There are benefits and
consequences of most devices. A number of options are available. These can be done all year or just
seasonally:

Nematodes

such as the root-knot nematode infect plant roots, causing root knot galls that drains the plant's
photosynthate and nutrients. It can even cause complete yield loss.

REFERENCES

Illustrated Guide to Integrated Pest Management in Rice in Tropical Asia

Friends of the Rice Farmer... Helpful insects and spiders