BPH or Brown plant hopper in Rice and its management

Do you cultivate paddy and in your field Brown plant hopper whose common name is phudka or bhusadi. If you have a brown planthopper in your rice field, then in this article we will know about the nature of the damage and its life cycle so that we can get BPH free from our farm. And we will know what is the harm in our crop due to this. Brown planthopper is an insect of the order Hemiptera whose nymphs and adults live in the ground level and suck the plant sap of plants.

Brown Plant Hopper in Rice Field

BPH or brown planthopper is the most important insect or pest of rice that feeds directly on the rice plant and transmits these two viruses. Rice ragged stunt virus and rice grassy stunt virus. BPH damages 60% yield by attacking directly at the rice plant. Its alternative host southern cutgrass (leersia hexandra)

brown plant hopper Nature of Damage

If we talk about the nature of the damage, both the names of BPH and adult are harmful to the plant.

Both its nymphs and adults suck the plant sap by staying at the ground level. It is a typical vascular feeder and sucks the phloem sap.

Leaves affected by BPH turn yellow and dry out, killing the plant within a few days. And it also helps in the transmission of the virus

• Bath Nymphs and adults remain on the ground level and suck the plant sap.
• It is a typical vascular feeder primarily sucking phloem SAP leading to hopper burn
• The affected leaves turn yellow, dry up and the whole plant may die after a few days with the result circular brownish patches appear in the field.
• The patches of infestation later spread out and cover the entire field.
• During feeding, they excrete a large amount of honeydew with the attract a sooty mould it also transmits virus disease grassy stunt and wilted stunt its ETL is 1 number per tiller.

The life cycle of BPH 

Rice field If you want to control then we have to know about its life cycle. There are three developmental stages in the brown planthopper, Egg, Nymph, and Adult. So let’s know about these three development stages.

Egg Stage of brown plant hopper

This is the first developmental stage of the BPH life cycle in which adults lay eggs in the fleshy portion of the leaf.

• The eggs are laid in clusters of 2 – 15 in the leaf sheath and in the fleshy portion of the midrib of the leaf they are covered with an egg plug secreted by the female.
• The egg art is white, transparent, slender, and cylindrical arranged in two rows in a straight line.
• One female can lay up to 650 during its lifeline. The egg measures 1 mm long and 0.2 mm in width.
• The egg hatching period of eggs varies from 5 to 8 days.

Nymph Stage Of brown plant hopper

This is the second developmental stage in which a nymph colony emerges from the egg which is white and 0.6 mm long.

• It grows and turns purple-brown 3.0 mm long in the fifth instar.
• The nymphal period lasts 12 to 15 days.

Adult Stage of brown plant hopper

This is the last stage of the BPH life cycle, in which the nymphs grow and become adults, which are 4.5 to 5.0 mm long and yellowish-brown to dark brown.

• The wings are sub hyaline with a dull yellowish tint. They usually line up for about 10 to 21 days.
• The insect is most active during warm, humid weather it passes winter in the egg stage for the 5th nymphal stage and become active during March-April
• The life cycle is completed in 18-25 days and there are 5-8 generations in a year.

Management Of BPH  In Rice Field

BPH we should use the following methods.

• Resident varieties namely Aruna, Abhay, Asha, Divya, Kanaka, Makon co-42 should be grown.
• Avoid close planting and use of excessive nitrogen fertilizers.

Spray the crop with any one of the following insecticides the express should be directed toward the base of the plants.

(a) methyl demeton 25EC-1000 ml/ha

(b)Acephate 75 SP-625ml/ha

(c) Chlorpyriphos 20WSC-350ml/ha

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