Performance of five plant extract on-leaf-cuttingbeetle Hypomeces squamosus on Harumanis variety of Mango in Perlis, Malaysia.
Harbant Singh, Al-Samararrai G. F., Jaffar M. H., Chemat M. H., Islam A. K. M. S.
Author Affiliation: School of Bioprocess Engineering, University Malaysia, Perlis, Malaysia.
International Journal of Agricultural Science and Research (IJASR) 3 : 89-98
Abstract : Application of plant extracts as alternative to commercial insecticides provide an eco friendly non hazardous control method. The gold dust beetle (Hypomeces squamosus L.) is among the insects that produce cuts, holes, or leaf falls, as they feed on mango leaves. A field trial (RBD, 4 replicates) was conducted to evaluate the effect of ethanol extracts of five plants [Azadirachta indica L. (neem), Cymbopogon citrates L. (lemon grass), Capsicum frutescent L. (hot chilly), Zingiber officinale L. (ginger), and Syzygium aromaticum L.(clove)] on the leaf damage caused by this beetle. Four, 4-5 year old, mango plants per treatment, were sprayed with 0.5% of each extract at weekly intervals for five weeks, with water treatment as control. The plant extracts from neem and chilly showed remarkable reduction (p?0.05) in the number of fallen and damaged leaves while other treatments recorded high number of fallen and damaged leaves. The data on the number of insects visiting the plants, one week after each spray for each treatment, showed chilly extract to be a good treatment in recording low number of insects when compared with the control. Lemon grass and ginger also recorded low insect count.