Management of Lepidopteran Pests through Newer Insecticides in Castor

New insecticide molecules were evaluated against Lepidopteran pests viz., Achaea janata, Spodoptera litura, Euproctis hairy caterpillar and Conogethes punctiferalis in a field experiment conducted at the Regional Agricultural Research Station, Palem on red chalka soils for two years (2010–11 and 2011–12) during the Kharif season using castor cv Haritha. Majority of the insecticides showed significant control of the pests with a single application. The treatments flubendiamide and chlorantraniliprole were significantly superior and recorded 0.4 and 0.4 and 0.3 and 0.4 larvae/plant, respectively at three days after spraying for Spodoptera and semilooper. The next best treatments were emamectin benzoate 5% SG and lambda cyhalothrin 2.5% EC. In capsule borer, all the treatments, except the emamectin benzoate were significantly superior and statistically on par (15- 19.3% capsules) at two weeks after spraying. In second spray, chlorantraniliprole (19.3%), lambda cyhalothrin (18.3%), flubendiamide (20%) and acephate (26%) recorded less per cent damaged capsules at one week after spraying. Significantly high seed yield was recorded with flubendiamide (979 kg/ha), which was at par with chlorantraniliprole (921 kg/ha).