Mass production of Trichogrammatoidea cojuangcoi for cocoa pod borer management

The indigenous egg parasitoid, Trichogrammatoidea cojuangcoi Nagaraja or previously known as Trichogrammatoidea bactrae fumata Nagaraja is effective for controlling the cocoa pod borer (CPB), Conopomrpha cramerella (Snellen) in Malaysia. Their effectiveness was demonstrated and confirmed by several researchers. To date, the usage of egg parasitoids is only confined in the experimental plots because of supply. At the moment, there is no commercial insectarium available in Malaysia due to earlier failure in mass production of egg parasitoids. The Malaysian Cocoa Board has made a lot of advancement in the mass production of egg parasitoids. The present finding on this project indicated that the cost of controlling CPB is cheaper than of chemical spraying. The paper highlights the advancement made in the mass production of egg parasitoids.