author(s)
Premalatha K and Chinniah C

abstract
Two spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch. is one of the major pests of tomato in south India. The use of various synthetic chemicals for the control of this pest has lead to various environmental hazards. Botanical insecticides have long been augmented as a feasible alternate strategy for pest management because plant derivatives are safer, specific in action, biodegradable and potentially suitable for use in integrated pest management programmes. The commonly available plant derivatives such as V. negundo (10%), O. sanctum (10%), C. colocynthis (10%), A. calamus (10%) and among the oil formulations rosemary oil (3%), neem oil (3%), citronella oil (3%), lemon grass oil (3%) were integrated as one of the components. The popular acaricide (Fenpyroximate 5.0 EC) was used as a standard check for comparison of the relative efficacy of the treatments. The formulations were evaluated for mortality percentage of egg and adults of red spider mites under field condition. Among the plant derivatives, the O. sanctum (10%), V. negundo (10%) and A. calamus (10%) were found more promising with maximum percent reduction of eggs (72.36%, 72.20% and 72.00%) and mites (73.62%, 73.41% and 73.20%) over untreated check., coupled with least mean number of eggs (8.76, 8.81 and 8.88) and mites (7.11, 7.17 and 7.23) respectively, which were statistically on par in their efficacy, followed by rosemary oil(3%) which recorded a mean reduction of eggs (70.10%) and mites (71.9%), neem oil (3%) with the reduction of eggs (68.41%) and mites (69.55%). The remaining plant derivatives show moderate effect on two spotted spider mite.