Effect of Insecticides, Bio-pesticides and Botanicals on the Population of Natural Enemies in Brinjal Ecosystem

Studies on field evaluation of insecticides, bio-pesticides and neem based insecticides on the population of natural enemies i.e., braconid wasp, coccinellid beetle and predatory spider in brinjal ecosystem revealed that the pesticides from the biological origin and neem based were found relatively less harmful to the natural enemies than newer and conventional synthetic organic insecticide imidacloprid and cypermethrin. Spraying of cypermethrin 10 Ec @ 0.016% was found relatively most toxic having higher mortality of coccinellids (57.3, 58.1%); braconid wasp (54.6, 61.7%) and predatory spiders (64.58, 53.09%) during both the years, respectively. Next to cypermethrin application of imidacloprid caused maximum mortality of coccinellids (41.4, 45.3%) braconid wasp (37.86, 50.82%) and predatory spiders (47.1, 41.4%) during both the years, respectively as compared to biopesticides and neem based insecticides. However, the toxic effect of the insecticides and bio-pesticides decreased after 7 days of treatment application.