Abstract

An investigation was carried out at Regional Agricultural Research Station (RARS), Titabor and Instructional-cum-Research Farm, Assam Agricultural University, Jorhat during 2011–12 and 2012–13 in boro and sali seasons, respectively, to evaluate local bamboo traps as well as sherman trap against field rodents in rice. The traps were evaluated in different crop growth stages against field rodents in terms of live burrow count (LBC/ha), trapping index (TI) as well as per cent cut tillers damage. In the present investigation, the performance of bamboo traps in the three growth stages of rice was significantly better than the sherman traps in both the seasons. In boro rice, placement of bamboo traps at maximum tillering, panicle initiation and flowering stage, the LBC/ha was 4.93,10.66 and 17.66, respectively, as compared to sherman traps where the LBC/ha was 5.63,12.33 and 19.66 respectively. The trapping index due to placement of bamboo traps at maximum tillering (2.43), panicle initiation (8.66) and flowering stage (11.06) were recorded, whereas the corresponding values in case of sherman traps were 2.36, 7.33 and 9.53, in the maximum tillering, panicle initiation and flowering stage, respectively. The per cent cut tillers in bamboo traps recorded at maximum tillering stage was 3.46, panicle initiation 6.64 and flowering stage 8.32 and the placement of sherman traps at maximum tillering, panicle initiation and flowering stages recorded were 3.73, 6.93 and 9.30% cut tillers which showed significant variation. The effect of bamboo and sherman traps in terms of LBC/ha,TI and cut tillers damage were similar when applied at the maximum tillering, panicle initiation and flowering stage of sali rice.