Bioefficacy of Certain Insecticides Against Rice Planthoppers vis-à-vis Natural Enemies Under Irrigated Field Conditions

Afield trial was carried out for two seasons to evaluate the bio-efficacy of imidacloprid (Confidor 200SL), acephate (Starthene75SP), carlap hydrochloride (Caldan 50WP or Padan 50WP), chlorpyriphos (Dursban 10G), cartap hydrochloride (Caldan 4G) and triazophos (Trelka 20EC) against planthoppers and its natural enemies in rice ecosystem at Agricultural Research Station, Maruteru. The pooled data on planthoppers revealed that imidacloprid was the best insecticide comparable to acephate followed by cartap hydrochloride (Padan 50WP) as compared to untreated control. Imidachloprid ranked first in safety to spiders followed by acephate as per Pest: Defender (P: D) ratio. Against mirid bugs (Cyrtorhinus lividipennis). acephate ranked first in safety followed by imidachloprid and cartap hydrochloride and significantly superior to all other treatments.