Assessing impact of refuge planting and under-storey repellent crops on incidence and damage of brinjal fruit and shoot borer

Some safer management modules against brinjal fruit and shoot borer were developed emphasizing on under-storey repellent crop and refuge planting. Components like phytosanitation, perimeter barrier and trap crop, clipping of infested plant parts and application of plant fractions were incorporated with the aim to minimize the field population density and subsequent damage of the pest. Safer treatments effectively checked the intensity of infestation and extent of damage of the key pest to low levels (3.9 -4.6% infested shoot, 4.6 -5.3% infested fruit), were safer to natural enemies as well as pollinators, registered good healthy yields and offered comfortable cost-benefit ratio. Chemical check with large quantity of synthetic pesticides was statistically at par with safer treatments in terms of damage and yield but offered an inferior net return and adversely affected the natural enemies and pollinators. Impact of treated check was not influenced by refuge planting but others suffered more in absence of refugia.