Introduction

Tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum.) is one of the most important vegetable crops attacked by several insect-pests from the time of planting till fruit is harvested. Insects can cause damage to crop in many ways. Some may also act as vector of many viral diseases. Leaf miner Liriomyza trifolii is a serious and a polyphagous pest of tomato crop. Its Maggot mines between two epidermal layers of the leaf and makes serpentine mines.  Extensive leaf mining activity reduces photosynthetic process of plants, resulting in defoliation and produce unmarketable fruits. White fly Bemisia tabaci is another serious and Polyphagous sucking pest of tomato crop.  The damage is caused by both nymphs and adults.  They suck the plant sap from lower Surface of leaves.  Severe infestation results in premature defoliation and plant unable to produce flowers and fruit

Materials and Methods

The experiment was carried out at College of Agriculture, Jabalpur during Rabi season 2004-05. Pusa Ruby variety was sown in 4.8 X 3.6meter square plots, with three replication in RBD. There were eight treatments including untreated control. The insecticides were sprayed thrice at insect population crossed ETL. The   population was recorded on ten randomly selected plants/plots before 24 hours (Pretreatment) and after 3, 7, and 10 days of each spray.  Data were analyzed after suitable transformation.

Results and Discussion

White fly

The results are depicted in Table – 1.On the basis of overall white fly population, all the botanical treatments differed significantly over untreated control (11.81 flies/10 twigs).  However, among the botanicals, neem oil 3% (2.51 flies/10 twigs) and NSKP 10% (2.66 flies/10 twigs) proved superior to rest of the botanical treatments.  The next better treatment was castor oil 3% (3.14 flies/10 twigs).  In the present investigation, NSKP 10% and neem oil 3% were found most effective treatments against white fly in tomato.  Earlier workers also tested the plant products against white fly in tomato and found reduction in the pest population by two plant extracts neem and karanj derivatives  also obtained population reduction of white fly in neem treated plots which also produced higher yield than other treatments. Some findings were reported by previous workers   Dimetry et al., 1996, Sabillon and Bustamante (1995) Somsekhara, et, al. 1997 Singh  et, al. 2006.

Table : 1 Evaluation of botanicals against white fly on tomato

NS= Non significant.

Figures in parentheses are transformed value

Table 2:  Evaluation of botanicals against leaf miner in tomato

Leaf Miner

The results are depicted in Table – 2.All the treatments had less leaf infestation than untreated control (44.78%).  Among the botanicals, NSKP 10% (10.93% leaf infestation) and neem oil 3% (11.92% leaf infestation) treatments proved significantly superior than other treatments.  The next better treatment was mahua oil 3% (12.59%).  Thus, neem products were found superior to other botanicals.  Trinidade et al. (2000) also reported 82 to 94.7 per cent mortality of eggs and larvae of tomato leaf miner fourth day after the treatment of neem seed kernel extract (NSKE).   However, 100 per cent mortality was caused by all the concentrations after sixth day of the treatment.  Jayakumar and Uthamasamy (1997) also reported that neem oil 3% and mahua oil 3% caused 93.3 per cent and 90 per cent larval mortality of Liriomyza trifolii.  Viraktamath et al. (1993) also reported the effectiveness of neem seed kernel extract 4% against Liriomyza trifolii on tomato. Azam (1991) reported that the neem oil 1.0 and 1.25 per cent caused more than 80 per cent mortality of the larvae and pupae of L. trifolii and other similar findings were reported by Murthy and Prasad (1996) Wankhede et.al., (2007) Mishra and Shantipriya (2008).  The maximum fruit yield was recorded in neem oil 3% (67.1 q/ha) which was at par with NSKP 10% (64.1 q/ha) proved significantly superior to other treatments. The Minimum fruit yield was rerecorded in untreated control plot (20.7q/ha) it is three times less than neem oil 3. %.

References

1. Azam K. M. Txicity of neem oil against leafminer (Liriomyza sativa. Burgass) on cucumber. Pl.Prot.Qtly. 1991;6(4):196-197.
2. Dimetry N. Z., Gomaa  A. A.,  Salem  A. A  and Abd-El-Moniem  A. S. H. Bioactivity of some formulations of neem seed extracts against the white fly Bemisia tabacii (Genn.). Anzeiger-Fur-Schadlingshunde, – Pflanzenschutz, Umweltschutz.  1996;69(6):140-141.
   CrossRef
3. Jayakumar P and Uthamasamy  S.  Bio-efficacy of some synthetic insecticides and botanicals against Liriomyza trifolii  Indian. J. Ent . 1997;59(4):347-350.
4. Mishra H. P and Shantipriya B.  Mangement of serpentine leaf miner Liriomyza trifolii  in okra using bio-pesticides. Indian J. Plant Prot. 2008;36(1):130-131.
5. Murthy K. S and Prasad Y. G. Management of serpentine leaf miner on caster. Insect Environment . 1996;2(1):4-5.
6. Sabillon A and Bastamante M.  Evaluation of botanical extracts for the control of tomato pests (Lycopersicon esculentum Mill.).  CETBA. 1995;36(2):179-187.
7. Swaroop S., Choudhary D. P and Mathur Y. S. Effect of plant extract against white fly (Bemisia tabaci Genn.) on tomato. Indian J. Entomology. 2006;68(1):71-73.
8. Somsekhara Y. M., Nateshan H. M  and Muniyappa V.   Evaluations of neem products and insecticides against white fly (Bemisia tabaci Genn.)a vector  of tomato leaf curl gemini virus disease.Indian Journal Plant Prot. 1997;25(1):56-59.
9. Trinidade R. C. P.,Marques I. M. R.,Xavier H. S.,  Oliveira J. V and de-Oliveira J. V.  Neem seed kennel extract and the tomato leaf miner egg and larval mortality.    Scientia – Agricola. 2000;57(3):407-419.
10. Vikraktamath C. A.,Tiwari G. C., Srinivasan K and  Gupta M.   American serpentine leaf miner is a new threat to crops.  Indian Fmg. 1993;43:10-12.
11. Wankhede S. M.,Deotale V. Y., Undirwade D. B.,Mane P. N., Deotale R.O and Khare R. N.  Performance Performance of some insecticides and bio-pesticides against tomato leaf miner (Liriomyza sativa. Burgass) J.Soils and Crops. 2007;17:136-138.