INCIDENCE AND MANAGEMENT PRACTICES OF INSECT PEST COMPLEX OF SWEET GOURD AND THEIR EFFECT ON NATURAL ENEMIES

Abstract

An experiment was carried out at Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University central farm during the period from October 2015 to July 2016 to know the incidence and management practices of insect pest complex of sweet gourd and their effect on natural enemies. The variety; suprima (Lalteer) of Sweet gourd was selected for the study. There were seven treatments viz, (i) T1 (spraying Phytoclean @ 1.0 ml/l of water), (ii) T2 (spraying Sevin 85 SP @ 1.5g/l of water), (iii) T3 (spraying Suntaf 50 SP @ 1.5 g/l of water), (iv) T4 (spraying Ripcord 10 EC @ 1.0 ml/l of water), (v) T5 (spraying Sumialpha 5EC @ 1.0 ml/l of water), (vi) T6 (Mechanical and Cultural practices) all treatments are applied at 7 days interval and (vii) T7 (untreated control). The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Results revealed that in terms of leaf infestation by red pumpkin beetle, epilachna beetle, whitefly and leaf cutting caterpillar; shoot infestation by red pumpkin beetle and leaf cutting caterpillar; and also fruit infestation by fruit fly and whitefly; in each case, best performance was obtained by T2 by reducing leaf, shoot and fruit infestation and also by producing highest healthy leaves, shoots and fruits. Results also revealed that the highest healthy fruit yield (61.08 tha-1) and lowest % infested fruits yield by weight (8.15%) was achieved by T2. The highest % reduction of infested fruit by weight over control (72.73%) was also obtained from the plot of this treatment (T2).