Indian Journal of Entomology

Shoot and fruit borer Leucinodes orbonalis is one of the key pests of brinjal. A field experiment was carried out to evaluate the effect of behavioural, biological and botanical control methods against this at Coimbatore. Pheromone trapping at 60 traps/ha, Trichogramma pretiosum release at 1.25 lakh/ha at weekly interval with a total of 11 releases and spraying of sweet flag EC formulation@ 4 ml/l at 15 days interval with a total of six sprays were evaluated singly and in combination. Observations at weekly intervals on shoot and fruit damage revealed that the combination of pheromone trapping, T. pretiosum releases and sweet flag EC spraying was effective with 42.87% and 91.04% reduction in fruit and shoot infestation over control, respectively. However, with fruit damage it was on par with sole T. pretiosum release (38.91% reduction over control), pheromone trapping + T. pretiosum release (37.24% reduction) and sweet flag EC formulation spray + T. pretiosum release (39.21%).