Biological control of insect pests in okra field

تاریخ : مارچ ۲۰۱٦ - جون ۲۰۱٦

"EFFICACY OF BEAUVERIA BASSIANA AND METARHIZIUM ANISOPLAIEFORMULATIONS AS BIOLOGICAL CONTROL AGENT AGAINST INSECT PESTS OF OKRA" Okra (Abelmoschus esculentus L.) is one of the important vegetable crops of world and also grown in Pakistan. Okra is attacked by a several insect pest’s from sowing to harvesting. These pests are managed by foliar application of synthetic insecticides which impose severe health hazard effects, environmental degradation, ecological backlashes and negative impact on non-target organisms and biodiversity. To reduce the use of chemical pesticides on okra, it is important to exploit entomopathogenic fungi as the biological control of insect pests of okra. This study was conducted in the Department of Entomology University of Agriculture, Faisalabad to evaluate the efficacy of two microbial pesticide formulations of Beauveria bassiana and Metarhizium anisoplaie. This research was conducted in field and laboratory conditions. For field experiment, okra was grown in Entomological research area young wala, UAF. After the infestation of insect pests four treatments was applied as foliar spray. Observations of insect pests incidence and density was recorded one day before and 5, 10 and 15 days after treatment application, from five randomly selected plants as using Mario method. For laboratory experiment, the field collected population of whitefly was collected by sweep netting and their counted number was released in the petri dishes having leaves treated with afore-mentioned four treatments. The mortality data was collected after 24, 48 and 72 hours. The results shows that combination of fungus showed best result as compare to applied alone concentration. The mortality of jassid showed by (M. anisopliae+ B. bassiana) 56-90% in lab condition and 34-80% in field. The mortality of white fly showed by (M. anisopliae + B. bassiana) 29-75% in field and 56-90% in lab.