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Eco-friendly management of cucurbit fruit fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae Coquillett (Diptera: Tephritidae) on cucumber in Kathmandu
Authors: Ranju Maharjan*, Resham Bahadur Thapa, Arvinda Srivastava, Sundar Tiwari, Rajendra Regmi
Number of views: 423
An experiment on the efficacy of different compounds-local, commercial and botanical pesticides, along with chemical pesticide were conducted by using RCBD design against cucurbit fruit fly, Bactrocera cucurbitae (Coquillett), on cucumber with three replications and seven treatments under field conditions. Seven different treatments were used- i) Nimbecidine 0.03% @ 4 ml/litre of water; ii) Banana pulp bait (over ripe banana 500 g + 10 ml molasses + 10 g borax and 2.5 ml Malathion, replaced at 4 days interval); iii) Botanical pesticides 'Jholmol'-leaf extract with cow urine, fresh cow urine and spices (materials used-1 kg leaves of each: neem, tomato, titepati, sayapatri, chrysanthemum, gandhe jhar, bakaino and 200 gm of each garlic, chilli, ginger, salt and turmeric); iv) Neem extract (homemade-grinding of neem leaves and seed and extraction diluted with water in the ratio of 1:5); v) cow urine diluted with water in the ratio of 1:5 and sprayed; vi) Malathion @ 2ml/litre of water; and vii) control, only water sprayed. The highest marketable yield (17.35 mt/ha) was recorded in Jholmol treated plots, followed by Malathion and cow urine, respectively. Jholmol treated plots was found superior in terms of size, quality and self life of cucumber. Maximum Gross yield, better benefit cost ratio, the highest number of marketable fruit and the lowest damage yield were recorded in Jholmol treated plots as compared to all other treatments.