Efficacy of neem, pongamia and fish oils alone and as synergists with insecticides for the management of whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) on tomato

Abstract

Insecticides alone and in combination with neem, pongamia and fish oils were evaluated against whitefly, Bemisia tabaci on tomato under Poly house conditions. Among the insecticides tested, spinosad followed by imidacloprid and fipronil were effective against B. tabaci and recorded a mortality of 84.55%, 84.17% and 79.39%, respectively. When neem/pongamia/fish oils were used together @ 3ml/l each, resulted in 75% mortality of B. tabaci. Oils alone gave upto 48.75% mortality of B. tabaci. All the oils showed synergism with different insecticides tried against whitefly and highest synergism was recorded with neem oil followed by fish oil and pongamia oil. Additional mortality upto 16% of B. tabaci was observed when these oils were used along with different insecticides. Neem oil in combination with spinosad gave upto 92.31% mortality of whitefly followed by spinosad with fish oil (91.68% mortality). Other effective combinations with neem oil were imidacloprid (89.67%) and fipronil (89.38%). In general, neem and fish oils were promising as synergists with the insecticides tried against whitefly on tomato.