Insect damage to sesame… and control possibilities

Studies of both the flower thrips and lygus bug indicate that they caused no serious sesame plant injury, reduction of pod set, or seed loss at the populations existing under the conditions of these experiments. It appeared that much larger population densities of these pests would be necessary to contribute to the poor pod set and low yields observed recently on untreated field plants. The green peach aphid caused up to 27% seed loss when present in moderate to large numbers, however. The aphid was effectively controlled by use of two applications of either oxydemetonmethyl or endosulfan.