PRESENT STATUS AND INCIDENCE OF INSECT PESTS OF GREEN BAMBOOS IN BANGLADESH

In Bangladesh bamboos are grown almost all of the villages. Bamboos are liable to attack by many kinds of insect pests and cause considerable losses in natural stands and plantations. To know the insect pests associated with green bamboos a systematic insect survey and documentation of various types of pests, their mode of infestation and damage in nurseries and plantations were done in the present study. For this reason different nurseries and village plantations of 49 upazilas of eighteen districts of Khulna, Rajshahi, Rangpur and Chattogram divisions were visited during June 2013 to July 2017. The collected pests were identified by using the identifying key, description and literature of Beeson, Baksha and Browne and by comparing reference in the insect museum of Forest Protection Division of Bangladesh forest Research Institute. Nature and extent of damage by each insect pest was recorded. A total 28 insect pests species were recorded from 18 selected districts of bamboo nurseries and plantations. Of which 12 species ware leaf roller, 9 species were sap sucker, 4 were culm borer and 3 species were root feeders belonging to 21 families and 11 orders. Most of the insects were major some minor. Though natural forest systems have a way of keeping pest populations under control but manmade plantations require human intervention to ensure their survival and productivity from insect damage. As bamboos are now being grown increasingly and intensively in plantations, the need for a better understanding of and an increased vigilance against pests has become essential and urgent.