Abstract
Bangladesh is a sub-tropical and humid country. That is why, the infestation of insects during storage is very common here. The maize weevil, Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), locally known as “Katta Poka”, is one of the most serious cosmopolitan pest of stored cereal grain, especially of maize (Zea mays L.), in tropical and subtropical regions including Bangladesh. Considering the issue, the study was conducted in the laboratory of Department of Entomology, Bangladesh Agricultural University (BAU) following completely randomized design (CRD) with three replications to evaluate the efficacy of four locally available botanicals and chemicals. The botanicals used were: Neem (Azadirachta indica) leaf, Datura (Datura stramonium) leaf, Nishinda (Vitex negundo L) leaf and Garlic (Allium sativum L.) tablet powders at three different doses (3, 4 and 5gm)/100g of grain seed against maize weevil. The results revealed that all test materials at 5g doses exhibited higher mortality action against maize weevil while at 3g doses it gave the lowest percentage efficacy. Powdered leaves of neem and datura at 4 and 5gm were showed statistical significant (P<0.01) differences while powdered leaves of nishinda at the similar rates were observed with moderately effectiveness and powdered tablet of garlic gave the lowest mortality rate within 28 days of exposure in all tested doses. These findings suggest that botanical treatments exerted better mortality of maize weevil and reduced maize seed weight loss with higher germination capacity compared to the untreated control. It was also observed that the highest mortality percentage, lowest seed weight loss and highest germination capacity in the seeds which were treated with Sevin 85SP at the rate of 0.25g/100g maize seeds. Maize grains treated with botanicals, indicated that insect reproduction and development were impaired in all botanical pesticides. It is suggested that datura leaf, neem leaf powder can be used as good alternatives to chemical insecticides against S. zeamays due to their higher mortality, lower seed weight losses and higher germination capacity.
Highlights
Maize (Zea mays) is under the family of Poaceae
These findings suggest that botanical treatments exerted better mortality of maize weevil and reduced maize seed weight loss with higher germination capacity compared to the untreated control
The results of the effect of different botanical products such as neem leaf powder, datura leaf powder, nishinda leaf powder and garlic tablet powder and a chemical such as Sevin 85 SP were evaluated against maize weevil
Summary
Maize is the third most important cereal crop It is one of the most popular crop plants grown in over 140 million hectares (Zaidi, Singh 2005) It is used as a staple human food, feed livestock and a raw material for many industrial products (Purseglove, 1975). In the developed countries of the world like the USA, Canada, Australia, Russia, the countries of the European Union (EU) and so on, maize is used mainly to feed animal directly and as raw material for extractive fermentation industries to produce alcohol and bio-fuel. In Latin America and Africa the main use of maize is for food while in Asia for food and animal feed It is the basic staple food and important ingredient in the diets of people for many countries. Approximately 21% of the total grain produced is consumed as food (Shaw, 1988; Dowswell et al, 1996)
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