ABSTRACT
Cardamom is infested by many pests, right from the seedling stage to the cured cardamom in storage. The pest problem has become a factor limiting the productivity of the crop (Anonymous, 1985c). Among its enemies, which range from viruses to mammals, insects undoubtedly are the most destructive. Nearly 60 species of insect pests infest cardamom (Kumaresan and Varadarasan, 1987) at different stages of its growth (Table 8.1). Based on severity of infestation, these pests are categorized as major and minor pests (Kumaresan et al., 1988, 1989b; Premkumar et al., 1994); the former include thrips, shoot borer, root grub, whitefly and hairy caterpillars and the latter capsule borers, root borer, rhizome weevil, shoot fly, lace wing bug, cut worm, aphid, scale insects, leaf folder, spotted grasshopper, leaf grub, mid-rib caterpillar, storage pests and red-spider mites. Kumaresan et al. (1989b) tried to classify them as foliar, subterranean and pests on reproductive parts based on the plant parts they infest. At different stage of the crop the pest complex varies.
