author(s)
Gangaraju P, MG Hegde, SS Udikeri and RV Hegde

abstract
A roving survey was conducted during December 2018 in major cabbage growing regions of Andhra pradesh and Karnataka. Apart from incidence level of different insect pests, information on the usage of insecticides, pattern and their frequency of application were also collected. An array of insect pests such as Mustard aphid, (Lipaphis erysimi Kaltenbach), cabbage leaf webber, (Crocidolomia binotalis), cabbage semilooper, (Trichoplusia ni Hubner), and cutworms, (Agrotis ipsylon Hubner),and diamondback moth, (Plutella xylostella Linnaeus) posing obstacle for cabbage production in the region. Diamond back (P. xylostella L.) moth was the major one among all of them. Majority farmers used insecticides belongs to different groups for protection of the crop against insects in this region and were being used in all possible combinations, dosages and frequencies. As many as 29different insecticides were used by the farmers to manage the diamondback moth and about 75.32% of farmers mixed two or more insecticides together without knowing their compatibility or active ingredients. It was noticed that 83% of the farmers did calendar based spraying without bothering about presence or absence of insects whereas, the rest (16.88%) sprayed as and when insect appeared. Only 18.18 per cent farmers adopted a waiting period of fifteen days before harvest and the 76% of the farmers sprayed higher than the recommended dosage. The study concluded that cabbage farmers still misusing the insecticides and might be the sole reason for development of resistance in cabbage the insect pests, especially diamond back moth.