Abstract
Red spider mite (RSM), Oligonychus coffeae is one of the major pests of tea in south Indian teaplantations. The modern usages of various synthetic chemicals for the control of this pest lead tovarious environmental concerns. Botanical insecticides have long been touted as an attractivealternative strategy for pest management because botanicals reputedly pose little threat to theenvironment or to human health. The commonly available weeds such as, Ageratum houstonianum, Allamanda catharitica, Bidens pilosa, Casuarina equisetifolia, Conyza bonariensis, Crassocephalumcrepidioides, Gliricidia sepium, Lantana camara, Ocimum basilicum and Tithonia diversifoila foundin tea plantations were collected and evaluated for their efficacy against RSM under laboratorycondition. The extracts were evaluated for adulticide and ovicidal activity at two different concentrations viz., 2.5 and 5.0%. Among the plants, the aqueous extractsof A.catharitica and C. bonariensis showed 100.0 % and 80.0 % adult mortality respectively at 5% concentration after 96 hof observation. The remaining plants show moderate effect on RSM. Ovicidal activity was less pronounced among the plant extracts.
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