Efficiency of botanical extract against maize weevil Sitophilus zeamais (Motschulsky, 1855) (Coleoptera: Curculionidae)

With the objective of studying the efficiency of locally available botanical extract on maize weevil, a lab experiment was conducted from February 3 to February 20, 2017, at the entomology lab of Gokuleshwor Agriculture and Animal Science College, Gokuleshwor, Baitadi. The design setup was a completely randomized design, with 10 treatments, each treatment replicated thrice. Two varieties of maize local and a commercial hybrid were treated with five locally available botanical extracts, i.e. Acorous, Rittha, Neem, Asuro and wood ash, to examine the efficiency of these on maize weevil. One kilogram of maize grains adjusted to 14% MC was placed in 20 cm high × 8 cm diameter plastic buckets. 10 g of the powdered botanical pesticides of each as the test material was then thoroughly mixed with the grains in each bucket. The mortality rate was recorded at 24 hours interval. Herein, Acorous showed the highest mortality rate in both local and hybrid varieties. The order of efficiency was found to Bhojo, Ritha, Ash, Neem and Asuro.