Papaya ring spot virus is the major disease in papaya. All most all the cultivars of papaya are susceptible to this virus. In some places, papaya has been cultivated under nylon net for controlling the virus transmitting vector. Is it possible to control this virus fully under nylon net?
I found a few papers on a quick search:
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/24020284
http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/BF03158331
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/25404196
They report that coloured nets can act as a deterrent to aphids by visually masking crops from the pests and that using insecticide-treated nets also stops aphids by poisoning them before they reach the plants.
I personally doubt that they are 100% failsafe, as the nets have holes that are many times larger than the insect vectors themselves (the adult aphids are app. 2 mm long and 0.7 mm wide). A net with holes smaller than 0.6 mm would probably affect plant growth and health by severely reducing light levels and air movement, leading to spindlier, weaker crops and a better environment for fungal pathogens.
Nonetheless, I'm just hypothesising here ... I guess your best bet is to actually contact the growers that you mention use the nets and ask them directly what nets they use and how well they work.
I am agree with Antonio about the effectivness of net against aphids even yellow nets. However we tested with good succes the efficacy of a treated net with pyrethroid (as treated mosquito net) with promising succes for protecting cabbages against green aphids (Martin et al 2013).
- Badges
- Science topic
- Similar topics
- Agricultural Science
- Horticulture