Comparative bioefficacy of selected plant extracts and some commercial biopesticides against important household pest, Periplaneta americana

Abstract

Owing to the fact that application of chemical insecticides cause adverse effect on beneficial organisms, pollute the environment and are detrimental for human health, plant based products are being tested for the control of variety of insect pests. With this backdrop of knowledge, the present study was carried out to test and compare the bioefficacy of some botanicals with those of commercially available biopesticides against Periplaneta americana. Antifeedant activity and toxicity of commercial formulations of Anosom®, Derisom®, Margosom® and ethanolic extract of Argemone mexicana, Nerium oleander, Parthenium hysterophorus were evaluated. Antifeedancy was assessed by taking the weight at pre and post treatment and percent starvation was calculated. Derisom exhibited 83.24% starvation whereas the least percent starvation recorded in A. mexicana (51.84%) at the highest concentrations after 24 hrs ofrntreatment. The LC50 values of Anosom, Derisom, Margosom, A. mexicana, N. oleander and P. hysterophorus was found to be 0.038%, 0.022%, 0.031%, 6.12%, 4.85% and 4.54% respectively. Based upon the present experiment, plant extracts have efficacy comparable to that of commercial biopesticides currently in use and thus they have the potential for development as commercial insecticides.