Authors: Tahmina Akter*, Md. Tareq Hasan and Md. Mahmudul Hasan Sohel
*Corresponding author’s e-mail: tahminasauento@yahoo.com
Abstract
The study was conducted at the main field, Sher-e-Bangla Agricultural University, Dhaka during the period of rabi season November 2016 to February 2017 to investigate the Prevalence and management of sucking and chewing insect pest of red amaranth (Lalshak), Amaranthus gangeticus. Lalshak variety BARI I were used as test crop in this experiment. The experiments consists of 7 treatments as T1: Mechanical method + Cultural method at 7 days interval, T2: Spraying soap water @ 1.5 g detergent/L of water at 7 days interval, T3: Spraying wood ash @ 10 g/m2 at 7 days interval, T4: Spraying neem leaves extract @ 20 g/L of water at 7 days interval, T5: Spraying neem seed kernel @ 20 g/L of water at 7 days interval, T6: Spraying malathion 57EC @ 1.5 ml/L of water at 7 days interval and T7: Untreated control. The experiment was laid out in Randomized Complete Block Design (RCBD) with three replications. Data was recorded on pest incidence, abundance of beneficial insects and leaf infestation due to different insect pests and significant variation was observed for different studied characters due to different treatments. As insect pests, grasshopper, red pumpkin beetle, green leaf eating caterpillar, green stink bug, leaf miner, white fly and jute hairy caterpillar was observed for different management practices. As beneficial insect population, lady bird beetle, specid wasp, bee wolf and braconid parasite was observed for different management practices. In case of grasshopper, red pumpkin beetle, green leaf eating caterpillar, green stink bug, leaf miner, white fly, jute hairy caterpillar the lowest infestation of leaves/plant (2.16%, 2.57%, 3.49%, 1.11%, 2.22%, 3.33% and 4.44%, respectively) was recorded in T6 treatment, while the highest infestation for same insect pests (12.04%, 15.85%, 15.56%, 15.56%, 17.78%, 21.11% and 18.89% ) was observed in T7 treatment. Among the different insect pests management practices, spraying of malathion 57EC @ 1.5 /L of water at 7 days interval was better for controlling insect pests of red amaranth with lowest infestation level.
Keywords: Red amaranth, Sucking and chewing insect
