Efficacy of Biopesticides and Insecticides against Lepidopteran Pests in Rainfed Castor

Field experiments were conducted during kharif 2022 to evaluate the bio-efficacy of biopesticides and insecticides against tobacco caterpillar, Spodoptera litura (F.);semilooper, Achaea janata L. and shoot and capsule borer, Conogethes punctiferalis Guenee on castor. The results revealed that, all the insecticide treatments were significantly superior over untreated control. The highest% reduction of lepidopteran pest complex over the control after three sprays was recorded with spinetoram 11.7 SC followed by cyantraniliprole 10.26 OD, Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki (Btk) SC, profenophos 50 EC, lambda cyhalothrin 5 EC and B. thuringiensis var. kurstaki (Btk) WP 1.5, Beauveria bassiana SC and Neemazal 10000 PPM. Highest seed yield was recorded with spinetoram (1434 kg/ ha) followed by cyantraniliprole (1338 kg/ ha) as against 940 kg/ ha in untreated control. The maximum incremental cost-benefit ratio of 1:3.13 was obtained with application of spinetoram followed by lambda-cyhalothrin (1:3.00) and Btk SC (1:2.73).