科研之友
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摘要
A comparative study was conducted to determine the effect of roots and leaves of vetiver grass (Chrysopogon zizanioides. L. Roberty) when used as mulch against Indian termites. The major subterranean species, Heterotermes indicola were taken for the study. In this, the vetiver root and leaves (1 kg) were shade dried and powdered in a pulverizer and tested against termites. The 100% vetiver root powder proved to decrease tunnelling activity and wood consumption. This also increased mortality rate of termites than leaf powder. To reach the food source, termites had to tunnel through the treatment chamber. Three replicates were performed for each treatment. Each container was covered and placed in a dark room at room temperature for 21 days. To maintain moisture, 10 ml of distilled water was added to the soil once in three days. Appropriate control without vetiver root and leaves were maintained separately and the tunnel length of termites was determined. On 7th, 14th and 21st day, the tunnel length was determined by scanning the bottom of each container to fix the image of tunnels. Images were printed to actual size to measure the total tunnel length. The containers were dismantled to check the number of live termites in the treatments. The number of live termites was counted from the compartments of nest chamber, treatment chamber and food chamber, to determine mortality. Wood slices were cleaned, dried for 2 hrs and weighed to determine consumption. The tunnel length of termites on different days (7th, 14th and 21st day) showed a significant difference between the treatments (root and leaves) and control.
- 出版日期2014-1
