Sucking Pests of Grapes

Cultivation of grapes (Vitis vinifera L.) with intensive package of practices leads to serious outbreak of insect pest problem in vineyards in major grape growing areas of India and the world. Climatic conditions prevailing in India are favourable for increased production of table grapes, and simultaneously for increased incidence of number of insect pests. Sucking pests, like thrips, hoppers, mealybugs, and mites, cause considerable qualitative and quantitative loss in grapes. Updated information on their biology, damage, seasonal development, management practices of the sucking pests are covered in this chapter. Efforts were made to cover the pest management practices followed in other countries in this chapter. Of recent pesticide residue is posing a serious problem both for export and internal market in grapes. Therefore farmers are advised to follow the latest recommendations of Indian Council of Agricultural Research (ICAR)—National Research Centre For Grapes, Pune, which are discussed in this chapter. Information on sucking pests of grapes occurring in different grape growing regions of the world are also covered in this chapter.