author(s)
Muhammad Usman Asif, Raza Muhammad, Waseem Akbar, Mubasshir Sohail, Javed Asgher Tariq and Muhammad Ismail

abstract
Jassid (Amrasca devastans) and thrips (Thrips tabaci) have become major pests due to the introduction of Bt cotton. Development of resistance to synthetic insecticides is another menace, keeping in view these facts synthetic insecticide (imidacloprid) and neem derivatives viz., neem oil and neem seed water extract both at 1%, 3% and 5% were assessed against jassid and thrips with two applications. The experiment was conducted from the month of May to October during the year 2016. Eight treatments including untreated control replicated thrice were maintained following RCBD. Two applications of each treatment were made when the pest population reached ETL. Data were recorded after the interval of 1, 3 and 7 days of application. The results revealed that imidacloprid and all the neem derivatives had significantly suppressed the target pests population compared to control. Imidacloprid found to be more toxic than neem derivatives at any interval against the targeted pests. Among the neem derivatives, neem oil at 5% was most efficient bringing about highest percent mortality of jassid (72.03%) and thrips (68.02%) followed by 5% neem seed water extract and 3% neem oil. Higher yield was recorded in plots treated with imidacloprid (2626.7 kg/ha), neem oil (2551.1 kg/ha) and neem seed water extract (2437.8 kg/ha) at 5% concentrations as compared to that in control (1703.3 kg/ha). The study concluded that neem derivatives can be a good alternative of synthetic insecticides to control sucking pests of cotton.