DEVELOPMENT OF INTEGRATED PEST MANAGEMENT PACKAGE(S) AGAINST INSECT PEST COMPLEX OF SOME WINTER CUCURBIT VEGETABLES

Abstract

The research work was conducted on integrated pest management package(s) against insect pest complex of some winter cucurbits vegetables during rabi season (October-May) of 2015-2016. The experiment was embraced of six treatments including untreated control treatment and laid out Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. At the vegetative and reproductive stage of bottle gourd, in term of leaf infestation due to red pumpkin beetle, aphid, white fly and leaf eating caterpillar, T5 (Cultural + Mechanical control method + Spraying Sevin 85 SP @1.5 g/L of water at 7 days interval) treatment showed the best performance of all of the treatments and reduction over control were (64.12, 73.91, 74.19, 68.56 and 56.49, 75.20, 75.61, 74.26 % respectively) whereas the lowest performance showed the untreated control treatment T6. Similar trend of result was found incase of sweet gourd and cucumber on the leaf infestation by red pumpkin beetle, aphid, white fly and leaf eating caterpillar at the growing stages of plant. At the reproductive stage of bottle gourd, sweet gourd and cucumber, the highest number of fruit fly were recorded (14.67, 13.67 and15.67) from T6 (Untreated control), but the lowest number of fruit fly were recorded (2.67, 1.33 and 1.33 respectively) from T2 (Mechanical control method + pheromone trap) at 7 days interval and reduced percent fruit infestation (100, 100 and 100 respectively) over control were estimated. The highest weight of single fruit bottle gourd, sweet gourd and cucumber (1255.00, 1050.00 and 201.00 gm) were recorded in the T5 treated plot, on the other hand the lowest weight of single fruit (1051.67, 898.00 and 109.33 gm) was recorded in the untreated control plot T6. From the research findings it may be concluded that among the treatments, T5 (Cultural + Mechanical control method + Spraying Sevin 85 SP @1.5 g/L of water at 7 days interval) treatment was considered as the best treatment followed by T4 (Mechanical control method +Spraying Sumialpha 5 EC @ 1.0 ml/L of water at 7 days interval) and T3 (Cultural control method + Spraying Suntaf 50SP @ 1.5 g/L of water at 7 days interval) in respect of higher healthy fruit yield by reducing leaf and fruit infestation.