Management of Onion Thrips, <i>Thrips Tabaci </i>L., Using Botanical Insecticide at East Shewa, Ethiopia

Abstract

Onion thrips<i> </i>(<i>Thrips tabaci</i>) is one of the major insect pest of onion. The objective of this study is t to evaluate effectiveness of Potential Botanicals for management of onions thrips. The experiment was conducted at Adami Tulu Agricultural Research Center (ATARC) and Dugda district for two years (2020 & 2021) using irrigation. The experiment was done using six treatments, i.e., Five botanicals, Mexican marigold (<i>Tagetus minuta), </i>Jimson weed<i>, (Datura Stramoniu), </i>Tree tobacco, (<i>Nicotinia glauca</i>) Neem seed, (<i>Azadirachta indic),</i> and one synthetic chemical insecticides, Fastac and non-treated control where only water was applied. From the first year results, it can be concluded that across all parameters, the chemical insecticide, Fastac and neem andtree tobacco from the botanicals showed a significance effect in reducing the damage of onion thrips. This saves the farmers yield and its value appreciably. The combined, two years data showed still a significant yield increment in both treatments insecticides and botanicals particularly the tree tobacco.