Efficacy of Different Insecticides Alone and in Combination with Salicylic Acid against Cotton Whitefly Bemisia tabaci Gennadius (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae).

Cotton is an important cash crop of Pakistan and export commodity. Yield of cotton crop is affected by many factors but insect pests especially whitefly Bemisia tabaci (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) is destroying cotton crop yield and quality in recent times. Many control measures are adopted against this pest including chemical control methods. Due to certain environmental issues and insecticide resistance problems, adoption of alternate methods of insect control is imperative. In this experiment we used some insecticides alone and in combination with Salicylic acid against B. tabaci. Flonicamid 50% DF at the rate of 80 g/ac and Diafenthiuran 50% SC at the rate of 200 mL/ac were used against Whitefly. Salicylic acid (SA) by Sigma-Aldrich 500 G was used 01 mL/L of water along with the tested insecticides under field conditions. Highest reduction 90.63% was observed in Flonicamid+SA treatment followed by 82.89% in Diafenthiuran +SA, Flonicamid 77.76%, Diafenthiuron 76.28% and lowest 29.36% reduction was observed in SA treatment with respect to control after 72 hrs. of treatment application. After 7 days maximum reduction 83.43% was observed in Flonicamid+SA followed by 69.02 % in Diafenthiuron+SA, 77.76% in Flonicamid, 66.37% in Diafenthiuron and lowest 21.97% recorded in SA treatment. In SA treatments population of rove beetle, green lace wing and spiders was significantly higher as compared to other treatments. It is evident from the results that SA has enhanced plant resistance against whitefly and thus reduced the damage of pest. SA can be used as alternative combination for the management of cotton whitefly and the amount of insecticide can be reduced for the control of whitefly. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]