Vol. 10, Issue 9 (2021)

Author(s):
Sarita Koirala, Dr. Atul Yadav, Prakash Duwadi, Dr. Chandra Shekhar and Dr. Satendra Kumar

Abstract:
The major insect pests of summer squash are Red pumpkin beetle, fruit fly, flea beetle, whitefly, squash bug, melon aphid, etc. which effect in huge loss to farmers and thus discouraging the farmers for cultivation of crop. Hence, a field trial were conducted to find out the efficacy of various insecticides against the major insect pests of summer squash from December 2020 to May 2021, in Kanpur, Mandhana, U.P. The experiment was laid in single factor Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with 4 replications. “Anna 303” variety of summer squash was used under study. Two different botanical insecticides i.e. azadirachtin (nimbicidine) 500ppm @ 5 ml/L, jholmol @ 1:5 concentration and two chemical insecticides i.e. imidachloropid 17.8 SL @1.5ml/l and spinosad 45SC @1ml/L was used as treatments of experiment. Normal water spray was used as control. The results revealed that, among all the insecticides evaluated at all the four spray. Imidachloropid and spinosad recorded the minimum number of red pumpkin beetle (RPB), other insects, minimum leaf infestation percentage and leaf damage severity percentage per plant followed by azadirachtin and Jholmol respectively. The experiment also revealed that the efficacy of insecticide reduced with increasing time intervals of spraying i.e. all the insecticides showed greater reduction of RPB and other insects (45-90%) after 1 and 3 days of all the spray and decreased after that at all four sprays. Imidachloropid and spinosad gives comparatively lower fruit infestation by fruit fly i.e. 23.85% and 28.90% respectively than other insecticides. The population of beneficial insects (lady bird beetle, honeybee, wasps etc) were found to be minimum undertreatment of imidachloropid while spinosad, azadirachtin and jholmol (botanical pesticide) seems to be comparatively safer for those kind of beneficial insects. Both imidachloropid and spinosad treated plot was statistically (p<0.05) similar for yields (53.11 MT/ha and 51.41t ha-1 respectively); for fruit length (37.62 cm and 37.12cm respectively) and fruit diameter (26.78 and 26.51 respectively). The benefit cost ratio was highest for plot treated with imidachloropid (4) followed by spinosad, azadirachtin, jholmol and control. Thus, imidachloropid and spinosad was most effective and economic for the control of major insect pests and were economical whereas azadirachtin and jholmol was safer for beneficial insects.