The yellow stem borer or YSB (Scirpophaga incertulas) is the most damaging rice stem borer in tropical Asia. The caterpillars (larvae) bore into the rice stem and hollow out the stem completely causing it to break. In Indonesia, stem borers are still a major threat especially in large-scale paddy fields, despite the Indonesians’ use of integrated pest management (IPM) technologies.

The yellow stem borer (www.pustaka-deptan.go.id)

The study monitored weekly the YSB adult, larvae, and egg mass in a 1 x 1 meter permanent plot. on the  symptom maps showed YSB adults laying their egg mass randomly in the whole area and only certain areas have high abundance of YSB larvae. The number of recorded adult individuals increased with increasing age of paddy field. Meanwhile, in relation to species dispersion, YSB population tends to clump in one area. The study concluded that landscape affects the occurrence of the natural enemies of YSB and insect community structure, which in turn shaped the occurrence, distribution, and pattern of YSB populations.

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About the Yellow Stem Borer

E-mail proponent, Dr. Damayanti Buchori