Evaluation of different concentration of Bojho (Acorous calamus) against maize weevil Sitophilus zeamais (Motschulsky, 1955) and wheat weevil Sitophilus granaries (Linnaeus, 1758)

Abstract

To evaluate the efficiency of different concentrations of Bojho (Acorous calamus) on maize and wheat weevil (Sitophilus spp.), a lab experiment was conducted from 13, February 2019 to 19, February 2019 at the entomology lab. The design setup was Completely Randomized Design (CRD) with 5 treatments including control whereas each treatment was replicated 5 times. Grains were first adjusted to 14% moisture and placed in 50 jars with 15 cm height x 8 cm diameter. 250 grams of grains were placed in each jar with 25 jars containing wheat grains and another 25 containing maize grains. Grains were then treated with different concentrations of Bojho (5, 7.5, 10, 12.5g per kg of grains) and control to evaluate its efficiency against weevil. Powdered botanical extract Bojho was thoroughly mixed with grains in each jar. Mortality rate and weight loss were recorded at an interval of 24 hrs for 6 days. 12.5g Bojho/kg grains have shown the highest weevil mortality rate and lowest weight loss of grains in both maize and wheat.