MANAGEMENT OF SUCKING PESTS, BY INTEGRATION OF ORGANIC SOURCES OF AMENDMENTS AND FOLIAR APPLICATION OF ENTOMOPATHOGENIC FUNGI ON CHILLI

A field experiment was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of different organic amendments viz., farm yard manure (FYM), neem cake (NC) and Pseudomonas fluorescens in combination with certain entomopathogenic fungal formulations viz., Hirsutella thompsonii Fisher, Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo), and Lecanicillium lecanii (Zimm.) against sucking pests of chilli viz., aphids, Myzus persicae (Sulzer), chilli thrips, Scirtothrips dorsalis Hood and muranai mite, Polyphagotarsonemus latus (Banks). Among fourteen treatments tested, seed treatment with P. fluorescens @10 g kg-1 of seed + foliar application of B. bassiana @ 1x108 CFU ml-1, neem cake @ 600 kg ha-1 + B. bassiana @ 1x108 CFU ml-1 and farm yard manure @ 12.5 t ha-1 + B. bassiana @ 1x108 CFU ml-1 were found promising against sucking pests of chilli, which are statistically on par. The next effective treatment was P. fluorescens @ 10 g kg-1 of seed + L. lecani @ 1 x 10-8 CFU ml-1 in reducing population of aphids and thrips on chilli, With regard to yellow mite of chilli, P. fluorescens @ 10g kg-1 of seed + H. thompsonii @ 1 x 10-8 CFU ml-1 was found effective. Further, treatment combination of organic amendments with formulations of B. bassiana recorded highest yield of green chillies and cost benefit ratio (CBR).