Ecofriendly Approaches for the Management of Sucking Pests in High Density Guava

Treatments such as fish oil rosin soap (FORS) 0.2%, neem oil 0.2%, yellow sticky trap 5 no. / acre and imidacloprid 0.06 % including a control was implemented in ten year old high density guava orchard, Horticultural College and Research Institute for Women, Tiruchirappalli, Tamil Nadu during 2024 with Lucknow 49 variety at a spacing of 3 m x 1.5 m. Field with 60 trees were divided into blocks and within each block, treatments were randomly assigned. Treatments were implemented at fortnight intervals to maintain pests population below ETL throughout the study period. Yellow sticky traps placed in canopy of trees were monitored at weekly intervals. Observation on the incidence and per cent damage of sucking pests were assessed on 5th, 10th and 15th days after treatment (DAT). Imidacloprid reduced the thrips incidence by 92.09% over control followed by Neem oil @ 0.2% and fish oil rosin soap 0.2% with 78.85 and 75.13 percent reduction over control respectively. The treatment with yellow sticky trap was less effective and recorded the thrips incidence of (50.25 numbers / fruit). Per cent damage of thrips on guava fruits due to FORS @ 0.2% and Neem oil @ 0.2% was found on par with 75.13 and 78.85 per cent over control respectively. Imidacloprid significantly reduced the thrips damage by 96.06 per cent over control. Bio efficacy of the treatments inflicted significant damage of mealybug from 71.46 to 79.02 per cent; 67.88 to 75.07 per cent and 69.13 to 76.77 per cent over control at 5, 10 and 15 DAT respectively. Use of Imidacloprid @ 0.06% significantly contributed 71.46, 67.88 and 69.13 damage over control at 5, 10 and 15 DAT respectively. This was followed by FORS with 76.57, 72.74, 73.86 per cent damage over over at 5, 10 and 15 DATW respectively. Neem oil @ 0.2% recorded 75.85, 72.06 and 73.98 per cent damage after 5, 10, and 15 DAT respectively. The number of leafhoppers on leaves declared that there was significant difference in the reduction of leafhoppers for all the treatments. Imidacloprid reduced leafhopper by 36.85 per cent over control followed by neem oil, FORS and yellow sticky trap with 23.89, 7.96 and 6.30 per cent over control respectively).