Management of leaf eating caterpillar on potato in semi arid zone

Leaf eating caterpillar (Heliothis armigera Hub.) is a major pest as defoliator and cutworm, Agrofis sp. as tuber damaging pest in potato growing areas of Gujarat. For its management a field trial was carried during rabi seasons of 1999–2000 and 2000–01 to evaluate the efficacy of bio-agents and synthetic chemicals. It revealed that NPV treatments @ 250LE/ha twice at 15 days interval after appearance of the pest was found effective to manage the leaf eating caterpillar. As a synthetic chemical chloropyrifos @ 0.5 kg a.i. /ha at the time of emergence was also found significantly effective to minimize the pest attack.