Evaluation of botanical insecticides against flea beetles Podagrica sjostedti and Podagrica uniforma on okra
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Date
2014
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
International Journal of Advanced Research
Abstract
Field trials were conducted during 2012 and 2013 cropping season to assess
the efficacy of aqueous extract of leaves and bulb of some botanicals for the
control of two species of flea beetles (Podagrica sjostedti and Podagrica
uniforma), important destructive pests of okra, in Southern Guinea Savannah,
Nigeria. Okra variety NHV47-4 was used for the study. The treatments
consisted of leaf extracts of neem (Azadirachta indica) and pawpaw (Carica
papaya), and bulb extract of onion (Allium cepa) and untreated control. The
experiment was laid out in a Randomized Complete Block Design and
replicated three times. Data were collected on abundance of insects a day
before botanical application and for the three consecutive days after spraying
of insecticides. Yield parameters data collected were number of fruits, weight
of fruit and yield of fruits. The results showed that all the extracts of the three
botanicals significantly (P ˂ 0.05) reduced the population of the two flea
beetles with the least percent efficacy of 56.4% and the highest 83.8%.
However, pawpaw leaf extract had highest significant effect (P ˂ 0.05) in
reducing the population of the beetles. The order of effectiveness in
decreasing sequence was found to be pawpaw leaf extract ˃ neem leaf extract
˃ onion bulb extract. Onion bulb extract showed a moderate level of
effectiveness with (63.9%; 56.4%) and (75.6%; 71.1%) on P. uniforma and
P. sjostedti in 2012 and 2013 respectively. Pawpaw leaf extract showed the
highest level of effectiveness with (79.7%; 81.5%) and (76.5%; 83.8%) on P.
uniforma and P. sjostedti in 2012 and 2013 respectively. Higher yield, higher
number of fruits and improved fruits’ weight of okra on treated plots
indicated the efficacy of these botanicals. However, the effectiveness of
neem leaf extract is comparable to pawpaw leaf extract