study of infested lac stick with image
Answers
Explanation:
See also: Lake pigment
Lac tubes created by Kerria lacca
Resin secreted by the female lac bug on trees is processed and sold as dry flakes.
Lac is the scarlet resinous secretion of a number of species of lac insects, of which the most commonly cultivated is Kerria lacca.
Cultivation begins when a farmer gets a stick (broodlac) that contains eggs ready to hatch and ties it to the tree to be infested.[1] Thousands of lac insects colonize the branches of the host trees and secrete the resinous pigment. The coated branches of the host trees are cut and harvested as sticklac.
The harvested sticklac is crushed and sieved to remove impurities. The sieved material is then repeatedly washed to remove insect parts and other soluble material. The resulting product is known as seedlac. The prefix seed refers to its pellet shape. Seedlac which still contains 3–5% impurities is processed into shellac by heat treatment or solvent extraction.
The leading producer of lac is Jharkhand, followed by the Chhattisgarh, West Bengal, and Maharashtra states of India. Lac production is also found in Bangladesh, Myanmar, Thailand, Laos, Vietnam, parts of China, and Mexico.
The damage to plants caused by competition from weeds and by other pests including viruses, bacteria, fungi, and insects greatly impairs their productivity and in some instances can totally destroy a crop. Today, dependable crop yields are obtained by using disease-resistant varieties, biological control practices, and by applying pesticides to control plant diseases, insects, weeds, and other pests. In 1983, $1.3 billion was spent on pesticides—excluding herbicides—to protect and limit the damage to crops from plant diseases, nematodes, and insects. The potential crop losses in the absence of pesticide use greatly exceeds that value
