Abstract

                                Field experiments were carried out in farmer’s holdings at Coimbatore and Tirupur districts of Tamil Nadu during June, 2012 to September, 2012 to assess the efficacy of botanical pesticides against sucking pests and defoliators infesting Solanum nigrum. Foliar application of profenophos @ 2 ml per litre was effective against sucking pests as well as defoliators with maximum leaf yieldof 22.40 kg/12m2 harvest as against 11.45 kg/12m2 harvest in untreated control. Azadirachtin one per cent and aqueous leaf extract of Andrographis paniculata 2% recorded maximum reduction in pest population and also conserved more number of predatory coccinellids.

Key words : Solanum nigrum, botanicals, sucking pests, defoliators, predatory coccinellids