Effect of Wood Ash, Tagetus Minuta Extract and Hot Water Treatment of Enset Sucker For The Control of Enset Root Mealybug (Cataenococcus Ensete) Gemu Mesele*, Addis Temesgen**, Ngangbam Ajit Kumar***, Blomme Guy**** Southern Agricultural Research Institute (SARI), Awassa Agricultural Research Centre,P.O. Box 06, Awassa, Ethiopia, Cataenococcus ensete, Enset, Mortality, Southern Ethiopia. *E-mail: Meselegemu@yahoo.com.
**E-mail: Temesgen_addis@yahoo.com.
***Fisheries (MSc.) Karnataka Veterinary, Animal and Fisheries Sciences University, Bidar. India, E-mail: Ajit_b2007@yahoo.co.in.
****Bioversity International Uganda office. PO Box 24384, Kampala, Uganda, g.blomme@cgiar.org.
Abstract Studies on the effect of wood ash, Tagetes minuta extract and hot water treatment on Enset root mealy bug, Cataenococcus enset, incidence was carried out at three hot spot locations in southern Ethiopia. Study was conducted in 2004 and 2006 cropping seasons. The result indicated that hot water treatment killed 100% of mealybugs on the infested suckers as good as chemical insecticide before planting where as the subsequence drench application of hot water didn't kill 100% mealy bugs. Application of wood ash and T. minuta delayed the development of the mealybugs for the first three months and then increase in population was observed. The highest pseudo stem circumferences and height of plants were recorded from chemical treated plot followed by hot water treatment, while the lowest was recorded from the untreated plot. The results of this study indicated that hot water treatment reduced the initial population of the mealybugs and to further manage the pest integration with other. To minimize the root shocking effect of wood ash it needs re-testing at different rates and T. minuta would be included in the integrated pest management program to manage the pest. Top Key words Cataenococcus ensete, Enset, Mortality, Southern Ethiopia. Top |