Disease guide

The eggplant fruit and shoot borer (Leucinodes orbonalis) is a serious eggplant pest in South and Southeast Asia. Adult moths fly in from adjacent fields or infested debris and deposit eggs on new leaves. Larvae emerge from eggs and travel a short distance to bore into new shoots or fruits. The first symptoms of infestation are freshly wilted shoots. Larvae feeding on fruit render them unmarketable. Yield losses can approach 100 percent. The best way to manage infestations is through good crop sanitation, use of pheromones to trap male moths and judicial use of insecticides to protect natural predators. Effective sanitation includes cutting, removing and destroying damaged shoots until the final harvest. Crop residues should be uprooted and destroyed to remove eggs and larvae.