Bioefficacy of novel insecticides against cotton thrips, Thrips tabaci (Thysanoptera: Thripidae)

Abstract

Cotton is the most important cash crop of southern districts of Punjab. The productivity of the cotton crop is low due to vigorous attack by insect-pests. Among the insect-pests, cotton crop is heavily damaged by sucking pests. Among the sucking pest’s thrips, Thrips tabaci create a setback to the early stages and reduces yield of cotton crop. Therefore, an on farm trial was conducted to evaluate the bioefficacy of novel insecticides viz., Spinetoram 11.7 SC, Diafenthiuron 50 WP and Thiamethoxam 25 WG against thrips on cotton crop. Results of the present study revealed that lowest population of thrips i.e., 3.03 per leaf was recorded with the treatment of Spinetoram 11.7 SC followed by Diafenthiuron 50 WP and Thiamethoxam 25 WG with record of 8.70 and 12.07 thrips per leaf, respectively after 10 days of spray. Similarly, the highest yield of cotton (21.25 q/ha) and benefit cost ratio (3.48) was observed the application of Spinetoram 11.7 SC.