Exploitation of beneficial birds against major insect pests of castor Ricinus communis l.

Castor is infested by number of insect pests and these are attacked by many natural enemies and insectivorous birds. Some insecticides/other treatments and beneficial birds in suppression of insect pests of castor were evaluated at the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Palem during 2009–13. The results revealed that the farmers practice (need based insecticides application) is significantly superior against the defoliators (1.90, 1.82 and 1.62 larvae/plant for semilooper, Spodoptera and Bihar hairy caterpillar, respectively). But the farmers practice, though gave maximum yield, the cost benefit ratio was not high. A total of 20 species of beneficial birds under 15 families and 4 orders were observed with the species diversity (N=36) (1.89 H’) and bird density/km² occurred being more. These birds played a role with spread of SlNPV infected larva.