Hakim Ali Sahito, Ghumlam Hussain Abro, Tajwer Sultana Syed, Shafique Ahmed Memon, Bhugro Mal And Sakhawat Kaleri
A field study was carried out to determine the efficacy of different insecticides against cotton mealybug, Phenacoccus solenopsis Tinsley and their toxicity against natural enemies of mealybug at Chaudhery Al-Rahmat Agriculture Farm near to Experimental Field of Central of Agriculture and Biosciences International, South East and West Asia, Modal Farm Mirpur Khas, Sindh, during 2009 on cotton (cv. Bt. 207) variety. The treatments included four pesticides, i.e. Neem oil (repellent), Profenophos, Imidacloprid (SL), imidacloprid (WP) compared with control. Before application of insecticides, the pre treatment observations were taken on mealybug and its natural enemies, while post- treatment observations on mealybug were taken after 24, 48, 72 hrs., 7th and 10th days, where as, the population of predators and parasitoid were recorded after 10th day of application of insecticides. The crop was sprayed five times at 15 days intervals. The results showed that all insecticides were found effective against mealybug. However, imidacloropid showed its effectiveness up to 7 day in most of the sprays. While, prophenophos was next to imidacloropid which retained its effectiveness upto 7 days after application. The activities of natural enemies (Predators and parasitoids) were found maximum in control plot followed by neem oil, imidacloropid and prophenophos indicating that neem oil (repellent) was the least toxic against natural enemies followed by imidacloprid (WP).
Share this article