General Information

Common name: Rice stem borer

Lepidoptera:Pyralidae

Host plants
Yellow stem borer feeds only on rice plants, while other species feed on barley, sorghum, maize,
wheat, and grasses

Distribution
White stem borer is found in Indonesia, Philippines, Malaysia, and Australia. Yellow stem borer
is common in Southeast Asia, China, India, and Afghanistan. Striped stem borer is present in
India, Southeast Asia, China, Iran, and Southern Europe. Dark-headed borer is an important
pest in Malaysia and Thailand. Pink stem borer is present in the India, China, and Southeast
Asia.

Damage
All rice stem borer species cause the same crop injury and damage to rice plants.

1. Stem borer larvae cause deadhearts and whiteheads. Deadhearts are the dried- up
central shoots of tillers while whiteheads are the discolored panicles with empty or
partially filled grains. These visible symptoms vary at the plant growth stages at
which infestation begins. Seedlings and tillers attack at the base of the stem have
deadhearts. An attack on the bearing panicles usually produces whiteheads.
2. Transparent or yellowing leaf sheaths. The damaged leaf sheaths have transparent
patches that sooner turn yellowish-brown and eventually become dry.

3. Presence of entrance or exit holes on the stem. Stem borers eat through the node
and bore down the stem. They leave the stem above the node and enter in either
another tiller, or at the neighboring inter-node of the same stem.

4. Larvae feed on the tissues around the node causing the stem to break.

5. The signs are the tiny holes on the stems and tillers. Fecal matters are found inside
the damaged stems.

Description
Rice stem borer species

1. Dark-headed stem borer (Chilo polychysus)

The egg is flat, scale-like and is not covered with hairs. The freshly deposited egg
mass is white and is found near the base of the leaves and leaf sheaths. Larvae are
grayish-white in color, have five longitudinal stripes of grayish-violet or purplish-
brown and with large black heads. The adults are brownish-yellow in color.
2. Gold-fringed stem borer (C. auricilius)
The fresh eggs of the gold-fringed stem borer are white. They are scale-like in
appearance. With age, they turn pale yellow to brown. When ready to hatch, the
 eggs turn blackish. The larva has a black head and five pinkish longitudinal stripes,
which run the entire length of the body. The adult moth is straw-colored to light-
brown with silvery specks on the discal cell of the forewings.

3. Pink stem borer, Violet stem borer (Sesamia inferens)

The egg of the pink stem borer is nearly spherical or bead-like in appearance and
laid in rows between the leaf sheath and the stem. A freshly laid egg is creamy
white and is not covered with hairs. After a day, it turns light yellow. With age, it
turns pink and black. Newly hatched larvae are white with a yellowish tinge and
black head capsules. Mature larvae turn pinkish purple with brown or orange-red
head capsules. A larva measures 2.5 to 3.5 cm long and 3 mm wide. The adult is
robust and is tan-colored with dark-brown markings. A purplish-red band radiates
from the central point in the forewing to the wing tip. The pink stem borer belongs to
a family different from the other stem borers. It is related to cutworm and
armyworm.

4. Striped stem borer (C. suppressalis)

The eggs of the striped stem borer are disc-shaped. Newly laid eggs are white.
With age, they turn yellow and then black when they are ready to hatch. A larva has
a large head, which is shiny brown or orange in color. Its body color is light brown or
pink with five rows of longitudinal stripes that run the entire length of the body. The
adults are brownish yellow with silvery scales and a row of 7 or 8 small black dots
at the terminal margin of each forewing. The forewings are darker than the hind
wings.

5. White stem borer (Scirpophaga innotata)

The eggs are similar to those of the yellow stem borer. The larva of white stem
borer is whitish to light yellow in color. A fully-grown larva is 2.5 cm long. The larva
has no body marks. Adults are similar to the yellow stem borer in appearance but
are immaculately white in color. They have a group of long hair on the thorax.

6. Yellow stem borer (S. incertulas)

Eggs are white in color; they are oval, flattened, and covered with brownish anal hairs of
the female moth. The larva has a pale hairless yellow body with a small orange head. The
female is whitish to yellowish in color. It has a pair of clear black spots in the middle of each
forewing. The male is smaller and is dull in color. It has two rows of black spots at the tip of
the forewings.

Rice Yellow Stem Borer

(Scirpophaga incertulas)
Appearance:
Adult moth : yellowish-white with orange-yellow front wings (wingspan of 25-
45mm); female is larger with a black spot on each fore-wing and a prominent
tuft of brownish-yellow silken hairs at the tip of the abdomen. Larvae : 20mm
long, white or yellowish white when fully grown.

Life Cycle:
Eggs (120-150, oval, flattened and pearly white), laid in masses of 15-80,
covered with buff-coloured hairs. Total life cycle from egg to adult is 31-62 days
depending on conditions.

Notes:
A serious pest of rice : larvae bore into rice stem and feed on the internal tissue.
Final instar larvae make an exit hole and pupate within the larval tunnel at the
base of the plant, in a silken cocoon. Their feeding causes 'dead heart'
symptoms; with heavy infestation, crop loss can be as high as 95% !

How to Manage Stem Borers

Contributed by Crop Protection Division
Thursday, 28 June 2007
Last Updated Monday, 10 March 2008

1. Know the population peak of yellow stem borer in your place and avoid planting when stem borer
population is high. At
PhilRice CES, for example, the population peaks of stem borers are from April to May and from October
to December.
Hence, planting should be done in December-January for the dry season and June-July for the wet
season so that the
crop will be harvested before the peak of stem borer population.
2. Maximize the use of biological control agents like parasitoids, predators, and microbial agents.
3. Rice plants can compensate for stem borer damage at vegetative stage by producing more tillers;
hence, insecticide
application may not be necessary during vegetative stage.
4. Harvest the plants at ground level to remove stem borer habitat.
5. Plow and flood the field immediately after harvest to kill larvae and pupae inside the stubbles.
6. Raise the level of irrigation water periodically to submerge the eggs deposited on the lower parts of the
plant.
7. Apply N fertilizer in two splits, following recommended rate and time of application. High N rate
increases crop duration
and susceptibility to stem borers.
8. Stem borers are difficult to control with insecticides because the larvae and pupae are inside the stem
and they have
overlapping populations in the field. Proper timing of insecticide application is critical to stem borer
control.
9. To determine if insecticide is needed, check the population of adults and egg masses in the field.
-Observe the abundance of adults attracted to lights before and after transplanting.
-Collect egg masses from the field. Place these in covered vials or glass jars with a moistened paper. If
30% of the egg
masses are parasitized, i.e., parasitoids emerge from the eggs, no insecticide is needed because the
parasitoids can
control the pest. If 70% of the eggs hatch as larvae, apply insecticide 1-2 days after the collected eggs
have hatched.
 STEM BORER

A stem borer in the genus Oberea is a sporadic pest of blueberries, huckleberries, azalea,
rhododendron, and laurel. This species (or a close relative) occurs throughout much of the
eastern United States (Craighead 1949).

The adult stage of the stem borer is a slender, elongate beetle with a light brown or yellowish
body. There are two dark spots on the dorsal surface of the thorax and a dark lateral margin on
each wing cover. Beetles are about 15 mm in length (5/8 inch) and have slender antennae that are
nearly as long as the body. The larval stage lives only within the stem or crown of its host plant;
it has a legless, cream-colored body with a dark brown head and mouthparts. A distinctive patch
of tiny, dark colored spines is present on the upper surface of the body just behind the head.
Larvae reach a length of about 3 cm (1.25 inches) when fully grown.

Illustrations:
 Adult stage of the blueberry stem borer.

 A distinctive mound of frass accumulates beneath a borer-infested cane.

Life Cycle and Seasonal Distribution

In early summer, adult females lay eggs individually under a flap of bark cut near the terminal end of a
blueberry cane. Larvae hatch in about two weeks. At first, the larvae tunnel upward within the cane
(often killing the terminal), then reverse direction and burrow toward the crown of the plant. From 5 to
25 cm (2 to 10 inches) of the stem may be excavated during the first year. Larvae become inactive with
the approach of winter, but resume feeding in the spring. After reaching the crown of the plant, they
move to adjacent stems, continue feeding for the rest of the year, and complete development during the
spring of the third year (Driggers 1929).

Symptoms and Damage

In some cases, stem borers cause extensive damage by destroying the growing tips or by killing entire
canes. However, in other cases, infested plants seem to suffer very little injury. Recent infestations are
often difficult to detect, but as larvae grow and begin to tunnel downward in the stem, they periodically
chew open small holes in the bark. Pellets of light yellow frass are ejected from these holes during the
summer and accumulate in distinctive mounds on the ground beneath the plant.

Natural Enemies

In the southeastern United States, stem borers in the genus Oberea have been reported as hosts of a
tachinid fly (Lixophaga variabilis) and a braconid wasp (Bracon ceramycidiphagus). There is no evidence
that either parasite is an important biological control agent (Linsley 1961).