Termite Control Guide: How To Control Termites In Farm & Garden

This ultimate guide on termite control will help you to save your crop from termites attack. Get to know physical, organic as well as inorganic methods to control termites.

I was receiving lot of queries regarding termites infestation on my Facebook page. One of the farmer said that termites have destroyed their farm and they are unable to grow any crop in farmland.

So I decided to publish a well researched article to help farmers as well as gardeners to control termites.

Introduction

Termites are considered as one of the hazardous damaging pests of farm and garden. They live in colonies and keeps protecting each other. So it becomes very difficult to control them easily.

Moreover even if you destroy adults then also they can spread further from nymphs and eggs. Therefore you need to identify them carefully and then follow the control practices step by step to control and destroy termite population.

Termite Control Guide

The first step is to identify the pest. So let’s know about identification and symptoms of termite pests.

Identification

Termites can be whitish yellow to red in colour having ant like body. They have dark coloured head. If wings are present then they are not equal in length.

Most of the time they live under the soil and destroys woody trees and other crops from inside. That’s why it is hard to identify if they are harming your crop in early stages. But you can keeping looking for termite mounds or hollow spots in woody trees.

However many farmers have found that termites generally feed on organic manure, humus, grass, woods, etc. But under draught condition they become invasive and starts destroying field crops.

Termite Pest Symptoms

If there are semi circular feeding marks on the margin of leaves then it can be because of termites. Moreover if termites are damaging your crop then leaves start yellowing and drying. Outer leaf starts yellowing first and then inner portion of the leaf.

If you are practicing sugarcane farming then you have to be more cautious about this pest. They can destroy setts which can result in poor germination after plantation.

Let’s now learn about different control methods for termites.

Physical & Cultural Method

You can destroy termite colonies or mounds manually after identifying them in the field. Remove the infected part and destroy them away from the farm or garden.

Then after practice flood irrigation in the farm before plantation. If you are a gardener then you can use lukewarm water to control termites.

Applying organic material in the soil also helps to save plants from termites. Termites generally do not feed on target crops. But in absence of their natural food and environment i.e. organic matter and humidity they start feeding on target crops.

Practicing crop rotation also helps in controlling termite pest attack. Therefore do not grow the same crop every season.

If possible then introduction or predatory species such as Metarhyzium aniospliae (Bio Blast) or nematodes or even beetles also helps to control termite population.

Organic Method

You can keep using organic bio pesticides such as jeevamrut, waste decomposer, panchgavya, or agneyastra to control this pest. Apply any one of them once after every 10 to 15 days to prevent your crop from termite pest attack.

You can also apply neem cake fertilizer to control the population of termites in the soil.

Inorganic Method

Well at last if they still continues to destroy you crop then you can try this method. Apply 50 Kilograms of Lindane 1.6 D to the soil in 1 hectare of land. You can also use the same chemical to treat your garden soil.

Author’s Note

I hope this guide will help you in controlling termite pest attack in your farm or garden. However if you have any queries, suggestions, or ideas then comment below. You can also connect with Agriculture Review on Facebook, Instagram, and Koo.