Evaluation of toxicity of some insecticides and biopesticides against Coccinella septempunctata

摘要

The lady bird beetle, Coccinella septempunctata (L.) is a predator of number of insect pests mainly the sucking pests. In the sucking pest category, aphids constitute an important group of pests infesting fruit, vegetable and ornamental crops. In stone fruits, peach leaf curl aphid Brachycaudus helichrysi (Kaltenbach) is a major pest causing curling of leaves which ultimately affect the yield and quality of the fruit (Verma and Singh, 1990; Chandel et al, 2000 and Sharma, 2010). Though a number of pesticides have been evaluated against the pest, very little information is available on their safety to natural enemies. In the present study, three insecticides, viz., imidacloprid (0.008%), thiamethoxam (0.008%), oxy-demeton methyl (0.025%), two botanicals viz., neem(l%) and pongamia (1%) oil and a biopesticide based on azadirachtin were evaluated for their safety to C. septempunctata adults.