EXCLUDING PESTS FROM RED GINGER FLOWERS WITH INSECTICIDES AND POLLINATING, POLYESTER, OR POLYETHYLENE BAGS

Exclusion bags and pollinating bags were evaluated for efficacy agains t pests of red ginger, Alpinia purpurata (Vieill.) K. Schum. Exclusion bags made from spunbonded polyester or polyethylene floating row cove rs, and nonwoven polyethylene pollinating bags were secured to flowers with masking tape alone and in combination with foliar sprays of chlo rpyrifos. Bagging flowers significantly reduced the mean percentage of flowers infested with ants, Pheidole megacephala (F.) and Technomyrme x albipes (F. Smith), and banana aphids, Pentalonia nigronervosa Coque rel. A single foliar application of chlorpyrifos reduced only the mean percentage of flowers infested with banana aphids. One foliar spray o f chlorpyrifos before bagging flowers significantly reduced the mean p ercentage of flowers infested with ants, banana aphids, cotton aphids, Aphis gossypii Glover, and cardamom thrips, Sciothrips cardamomi (Ram akr). Eight, 16, and 49% of flowers harvested from spunbonded polyethy lene, pollination, and spunbonded polyester bags, respectively, were m echanically injured or sunburned.