Efficacy of Insecticides Against Thrips, Leafhoppers and Whiteflies in Sunflower

Some new insecticides were evaluated against the sucking pests viz., thrips, leafhoppers and whiteflies of sunflower at the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Nandyal Andhra Pradesh. It was observed that at ten days after treatment, flonicamid (78.8%), fipronil (72.1%), acephate (60.4%) and acetamiprid (58.9%) led to signifcant reduction in thrips incidence. Flonicamid and fipronil also significantly reduced the leafhoppers (94.4 and 75.2% reduction, respectively); and whiteflies were reduced by 67.9% with flonicamid followed by diafenthiuron (67.2%), spiromesifen (66.9%) and acetamiprid (64.8%). Maximum yield was obtained with diafenthiuron (1569 kg/ ha), followed by flonicamid (1557 kg/ ha), fipronil (1543 kg/ ha) and acetamiprid (1517 kg/ ha) with benefit cost ratio of 2.02:1, 2.04:1, 2.05:1 and 2.04:1, respectively as against a yield of 1157 kg/ ha and benefit cost ratio of 1.62: 1 in untreated control.