Studies on the potency of some biopesticides against whitefly in cotton and tomato

Abstract

Whitefly the tiny homopteran is now emerging as the most destructive pest in several crops. In cotton and tomato it is now being identified as the most destructive insect causing heavy loss of yield. Field experiment was set to evaluate some biopesticides against whitefly in cotton and tomato. Among the different biopesticides evaluated Beauveria bassiana (66.11% and 63.24% reduction of population over control in cotton and tomato, respectively) and Verticillium lecanii (64.33% and 61.27% reduction of population over control in cotton and tomato, respectively) was considered as the best against whitefly, while, Metarhizium anisopliae, neemazal and karanja oil were moderately effective against whitefly population. Beauveria bassiana recorded maximum yield both in case of cotton and tomato (334.33 kg/ha and 19.5 t/ha respectively).