Recent Trends in Protection of Harvested Bamboos from Ghoon Borers

In India, the harvested bamboos suffer, in varying degree, from various species of ghoon borers at the felling site and under storage conditions. The severely infested bamboos are often reduced to heaps of dust, thus causing colossal loss in revenue to the growers and the industry. Protection of bamboos has all along been an important thrust area offorestryresearchsince the Second World War. Forest Research Institute has played a pioneering role in developing appropriate technologies for protecting bamboos from insects both for shorter duration (prophylactic treatment) and as well as of longer duration (preservative treatments). The paper discusses the results of some of the recent researches carried out at this Institute, more particularly the use of synthetic pyrethroids which, though easily biodegradable, have been found highly effective as prophylactic measures against ghoon borers.