Incidence and Field Efficacy of Botanicals and Insecticide Combination Against Okra Shoot and Fruit Borer, Earias vittella

摘要

A field experiment was conducted during kharif season of 2011 to study seasonal incidence and management of okra fruit borer, Earias vittella. The result revealed that shoot and fruit borer incidence on fruits started from fourth week of August on 5-week-old plants and continued until fourth week of October on 14-week-old plants. The highest population of Earias vittella was observed in the third week of September. Bright sun shines hours, maximum and minimum temperature showed non significant positive effect, whereas relative humidity and rainfall showed a negative non-significant and sig-nificant influence on Earias vittella respectively. All the treatments were found to be superior over the untreated control. Amongst the treatments tested, the cumulative effect of foliar spray of neem oil was most effective in reducing the pest incidence and realized the maximum yield of okra 84.23 q/ha followed by neem oil + quinolphos, neem leaf extract + chloropyriphos giving yield 66.68% and 60.08% respectively. Based on the yield data and the cost of application of three sprays of each insecticide, the most favorable incremental cost benefit ratio (ICBR) was 1:9.01 with neem oil treatment followed by Neem leaf extract + Chloropyriphos (1:8.18) and neem oil + quinolphos (1:7.50). The investigation indicated that better control of Earias vittella can be achieved with the combination of botanicals with insecticides.