Abstract
ABSTRACT Tea mosquito bug, Helopeltis theivora Waterhouse, is the major sucking pest of tea plant. It mainly attacks the young shoots essential for tea production. In lacunae of proper management, the pest remains active throughout the year resulting in almost 100% crop loss. To manage the population of this pest below Economic Threshold Level (ETL) of 5%, several rounds of chemical pesticides are applied during the season. Tea, being a consumable product; the unwanted pesticide residue cause a major concern for the tea industry. Thus, incorporation of alternate strategies like Biological Control Agents (BCA) in pest management programme is important to overcome the problems besides prevent the pest from developing resistance. The BCAs like entomopathogenic bacteria, fungi and virus are effective in an eco-friendly management of the pest population. The entomopathogenic fungi, Beauveria bassiana has been found to be effective pest control agent in several agro ecosystems including tea. Commercial B. bassiana formulations are available but the local strains are reported to be more efficient in managing the pest population. The present study was aimed to analyze the potential of a new strain of B. bassiana named as BPA/B7 (I.D. No. 10,928.8) isolated from tea soils of Tinsukia (Assam) against H. theivora. The efficacy of six concentrations (5 mlL-1, 10 mlL-1, 15 mlL-1, 20 mlL-1 and 25 mlL-1 ) of powder formulation of BPA/B7 was compared with a commercial formulation to estimate the LC50 of the same. The BPA/B7 (B. bassiana with a spore density of 1.68X106 spores/ml was found to kill 50% of H. theivora at a concentration of 21.87 mlL-1 within 96hrs. Further studies on the standardization of both liquid/powder formulations, shelf life studies, followed by their field evlauation, will ensure the possibility of utilizing this strain as a potential componemt of intergrated management of H. theivora.
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