Assessment of botanical insecticides against onion thrips, Thrips tabaci (L.) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae)
Najeebullah Khoso, Jan Muhammad Marri, Fahad Nazir Khoso, Bhai Khan Solangi, Agha Mushtaque Ahmed, Yasir Iftikhar, Anseer Ali, Jamal U Din Hajano, Muneer Ahmed, Kirshan Chand and Taimur Ur Rehman
Replacement of chemical insecticides with bio pesticides is a common mission for researchers and a lot of work is being carried out to achieve this goal. The use of non-synthetic pesticides is not a new approach but still is under the evaluation for anticipated results. Likewise, this work was designed at Agriculture Research Institute Tandojam during summer 2016 to assess the efficacy of different bio-extract locally available in the area of study in comparison with insecticide locally available in the market. The tobacco, neem oil, Datura leaves extracts were used as bio-pesticides whereas, Carbosulfan was used as control treatment. After 1st spray, the lowest population among the bio-pesticide treated plots was observed at Neem treated plots (4.15±1.81) and highest population was recorded at plot treated with Datura extract (9.60±1.95). The highest mortality percentage was also observed on the 7th day of spray. The highest mortality was found on Carbosulfan followed by Neem, Tobacco and Datura, whereas, the percentages were 89.34%, 83.30%, 73.84% and 61.37%, respectively. After 2nd spray, the overall mean population thrip at each treated plot is given. The result revealed that the highest mean population of the pest was at untreated (control) plot which was 71.85±0.21 followed by Datura (14.50±0.23), Tobacco (7.10±0.21), Carbosulfan (6.17±0.23) and Neem (5.83±0.18). The statistical results showed significant difference between Neem treated and Carbosulfan treated plot, although both were significantly different (p < 0.01) from plot sprayed with remaining plots. In terms of mortality, data indicates that the highest mortality was observed on 14th day of spray in plot treated with Cabosulfan (97.79%). In plots treated with different bio pesticides, the highest mortality of the pest was recorded on the 7th day of second spray which was 94.26%, 96.48% and 85.63% on Tobacco, Neem and Datura treated plot, respectively.