Efficacy of biorationals against two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch, (Acari: Tetranychidae) infesting green pepper cultivated under protected conditions

ABSTRACT

Green Pepper (Capsicum annuum var. frutescens Linnaeus) is a highly nutritious and commercial vegetable crop grown in open field and protected conditions throughout the world. However, two-spotted spider mite, Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae) causes major problems in its cultivation under protected conditions resulting in significant losses. The objective of this study was to evaluate the efficacy of different biorationals against T. urticae under laboratory and poly-nethouse conditions. Results revealed that among all the biorational treatments, there was more than 80% reductionwith propargite and spiromesifen, whereas minimum reduction of mites was reported in HMO at 0.2% (35–41% mortality). In botanicals, ozoneem resulted in higher mortality (47–78%) as compared to homemade neem fruit aqueous extract (41–62%). Among entomopathogenic fungi, Beauvaria bassiana was found more effective with mortality range of 43–58% compared to Lecanicillium lecani. The predatory mite, Neoseiulus longispinosus reduced the pest mite population by 40–60% at different ratios. All treatments were found superior in reducing the population of pest mite over the untreated control, so these biorationals can be integrated for effective mite management programmes under protected conditions.

KEYWORDS:

• Green pepper
• mites
• biorationals
• mortality
• Tetranychus urticae

Authors’ contribution

SN conducted the experiments, collected and analysed the data, wrote results and discussion, and collected literature. MBB conceived the idea, reviewed the manuscript and contributed to the interpretation of results, data analysis and conducted the overall management of the article. PK helped in data collection and preparation of the article. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

Acknowledgments

The authors are grateful to the Professor and Head, Department of Entomology, Punjab Agricultural University, Ludhiana and Indian Council for Agricultural Research, New Delhi for the financial support under the All India Network Project on Agricultural Acarology. First author is thankful to Bayer Crop Science for providing fellowship during the study.

Disclosure statement

The authors declare that they have no competing interests.

Availability of data and materials

The datasets used and/or analysed during the current study are available from the corresponding author on request.

Additional information

Funding

The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.