Management of sapota bud borer - Anarsia achrasella Bradley (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae) with attractants and insecticides

Abstract

In sapota, to manage the bud borer - Anarsia achrasella Bradley experiments were carried out with an objective that monitoring the peak incidence, to found out an effective food bait for adult moth attraction and to test the efficacy of different insecticides including bio-agents and botanicals. Monitoring study revealed that bud borer incidence was started during I Fortnight (FN) of September and reached upto 6.88% during November II FN. During July to August there was no BB damage. Two peaks one on November II FN (6.88%) and the second on January I FN (5.62%) were observed. Moth catches showed significant positive correlation with relative humidity. In the food bait technology to attract the adult moths, black tulsi extract baited traps (152.50 adults / traps / week) followed by Acetic Acid with Methyl I Butanol (AAMB) baited traps (126 adults / traps / week) caught more number of BB moths. Also the BB damage in black tulsi extract, floral lure and AAMB ranged from 9.84 to 10.54% as against 22.92% in control. Hence, either BTE or AAMB may be a useful tool for monitoring bud borer moths in sapota orchard, to determine their presence, and potentially to assess the risk of damaging infestations. In the bio-efficacy experiment, Bacillus thuringiensis 5 WP – 0.0075% found to be superior to other treatments and which was followed by profenophos (0.075%) and Emamectin benzoate 0.4ml / lit in terms of overall BB damage (7.87,10.36 and10.80%) marketable fruit yield (13.98,12.23 and 12.85 t/ha) and economic returns (1:10.6;1:8.2 and1:8.0).