Ecofriendly pest management against brinjal shoot and fruit borer, Leucinodes orbonalis guenee

A field experiment was conducted during kharif 2011 to evaluate the efficacy of various ecofriendly insecticides viz., juice of garlic (18g), ginger (9g) and chilli (9g) mixture @ 3ml/lit; ash dust @ 100g and 150g/plant; tobacco extract @ 2ml and 3 ml/lit; neem oil @ 2ml and 3 ml/lit and one synthetic insecticide monocrotophos 36 SL @ 2 ml/lit as standard against brinjal shoot and fruit borer, Leucinodes orbonalis Guenee. Monocrotophos 36 SL @ 2ml/lit was the best reducing mean shoot and fruit infestation of 83.61% and 75.33%, respectively over control as recorded after the 1^st and 2^nd spraying. Tobacco extract @ 3ml/lit was the 2^nd best followed by ash dust @ 150 g/plant. The maximum pest population was recorded in the second week of July with 2.06 larvae/plant in case of shoot and 1.20 larvae/plant in case of fruit infestation. The correlation between infestation and abiotic factors indicates that the minimum temperature, rainfall and relative humidity favoured the infestation (r=0.631, 0.402 and 0.504). There was also positive correlation between the infestation and maximum temperature (r=0.299).