Efficacy of insecticides against melon fruit fly Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett) in bitter gourd

Abstract

Field experiments conducted to evaluate the efficacy of selected insecticides against melon fruit fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae in bitter gourd, revealed that Deltamethrin 2.8 EC + jaggery bait (0.0028 + 0.015 %) was the most effective treatment resulting in minimum fruit infestation (13.15%, 8.61%), as well as lowest number of maggots per fruit (12.58, 9.58). The next superior treatment was deltamethrin 2.8 EC (0.0028 %), azadirachtin 1 EC (0.005 %) and malathion 50 EC (0.1 %) which were on par in terms of reduction of fruit infestation. However, the number of maggots per infested fruits was significantly lower in deltamethrin and azadirachtin treatment as compared to malathion. However, spinosad 45 SC (0.014 %) and dichlorovos 76 SC (0.152 %) were found to be inferior with comparatively lesser reduction in fruit infestation as well as number of maggots per infested fruit as compared to the other treatments, except untreated control. The combination consisting of deltamethrin + jaggery bait (0.0028 + 0.015 %) spray was found to be the most superior.