Iram Khan and Ayesha Qamar
Chemical insecticides possess inherent toxicities that endanger human health and pollute the environment. Therefore, plant-derived products are being tested as an alternative ecologically more compatible substitute to explore for their insecticidal properties. With this backdrop, the present study was carried out to test and compare the bioefficacy of some botanicals with those of commercially available biopesticides against Corcyra cephalonica. Antifeedant activity and toxicity of commercial formulations of Anosom®, Derisom®, Margosom® and ethanolic extract of Argemone mexicana, Nerium oleander and Parthenium hysterophorus were evaluated. Feeding deterrence was assessed by taking the weight of five larvae at pre and post treatment and percent starvation was calculated. Derisom exhibited 85.76% starvation whereas the least percent starvation recorded in P. hysterophorus (55.19%) at the highest concentration after 24 hrs of treatment. The LC50 values of Anosom, Derisom, Margosom, A. mexicana, N. oleander and P. hysterophorus was estimated to be 0.031%, 0.022%, 0.037%, 5.54%, 4.54% and 4.49% respectively after 48 hrs. Significant differences between treatment means were determined by Tukey’s multiple comparison tests. The present study revealed that plant extracts have feeding deterrent and toxic effects which are compare favourable to that of commercial biopesticides currently in use and thus they have the potential for development as commercial insecticides.
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