Mustard Aphid
Lipaphis erysimi
📖 Description
Mustard Aphid is the most destructive pest of mustard and rapeseed across the Indian subcontinent, causing 35-75% yield loss in years of outbreak. Dense colonies of aphids suck sap from tender shoots, flower buds, and siliques, causing stunting, distortion, and reduced pod filling. The sticky honeydew they excrete promotes sooty mold growth, further reducing photosynthesis. Outbreaks are favored by cool, dry winters (Dec-Feb) and late sowing. The pest has developed resistance to many insecticides, making integrated management — early sowing, resistant varieties, conservation biological control, and judicious chemical use — essential.
⚠️ Symptoms to watch for
- Curling and yellowing of leaves, sticky honeydew on leaves and siliques, sooty mold growth on honeydew, stunted plants, deformed flowers and siliques, shriveled seeds, yield loss up to 75%
🩹 Treatment
- Apply neem oil 5ml/L with sticker, spray insecticidal soap, release ladybird beetles, apply recommended insecticides at early infestation, destroy crop residues after harvest
🌿 Organic treatments
- Spray neem oil 5 ml/L + sticker, apply 5% NSKE (neem seed kernel extract), release Coccinella septempunctata @ 5000/ha, apply Lecanicillium lecanii @ 5 g/L, spray Verticillium lecanii, intercrop with garlic or marigold
🧪 Chemical treatments
- Imidacloprid 17.8 SL @ 0.3 ml/L, Thiamethoxam 25 WG @ 0.4 g/L, Acetamiprid 20 SP @ 0.2 g/L, Dimethoate 30 EC @ 1.5 ml/L, Pymetrozine 50 WG @ 0.5 g/L
🛡️ Prevention
- Plant early (Oct 15 - Nov 15) to escape peak aphid activity, use resistant varieties (Pusa Bold, RH 30), balanced fertilizer use (avoid excess nitrogen), destroy crop residues after harvest, remove alternate weed hosts, conserve ladybird beetles and syrphid flies by avoiding broad-spectrum insecticides, intercrop with mustard trap crop or grow coriander border for predator habitat
🪴 Affected plants
- Mustard, Rapeseed, Cabbage, Cauliflower, Radish, Turnip, Other Brassicas
🦋 Natural predators
- Coccinella septempunctata, Menochilus sexmaculatus, Syrphid Fly Larvae, Green Lacewings, Aphidius Wasps
🌱 Host plants
- Brassica juncea, Brassica napus, Brassica oleracea, Raphanus sativus, Brassica rapa
🔄 Lifecycle
- Reproduces entirely by parthenogenesis (no mating) in tropical conditions, with females giving birth to 50-100 live nymphs.
- Nymphs mature in 7-12 days and begin reproducing immediately.
- Winged forms appear when colonies are crowded, dispersing to new plants.
- Adults live 20-40 days.
- Total life cycle 10-15 days; 20+ overlapping generations per year.
📅 Season
- Active Nov-Mar during Rabi season, peak during Jan-Feb cool dry period
🔎 Appearance
- Small, soft-bodied, pale greenish-yellow aphids with dark cornicles.
- They form dense colonies on tender shoots, flower buds, and silique (pods) of mustard and other Brassicas.
- Winged forms appear when colonies become crowded.
💥 Damage level
- Severe
🔁 Reproduction rate
- Rapid
🗺️ Geographic regions
- Indian Subcontinent
- East Asia
- Southeast Asia
- Africa
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