Field Efficacy of Newer Insecticides for Management of Annual Moringa Leaf Webber, Noorda blitealis Walker (Lepidoptera: Crambidae)

The young larvae of moringa leaf-webber (Noorda blitealis Walker) feed voraciously on the foliage and strip the branches completely during rainy and new flush formation period, resulting in 100 per cent defoliation. The performance of six newer insecticides is reported under field condition at annual moringa garden, situated in two different locations of Madurai district, Tamil Nadu during 2016 to manage Noorda blitealis. Analysis of pooled data from the two locations indicated that two rounds of foliar application of spinosad 45 SC @ 56 g ai ha⁻¹ at fortnightly interval, starting from new flush period was effective in reducing the leaf damage to 8.57 per cent which was significantly superior over profenophos 50 EC @ 250 g ai ha⁻¹ (11.23% leaf damage) and flubendiamide 20 WG @ 250 g ai ha⁻¹ (11.42% leaf damage), all the treatments being significantly superior over the untreated control (38.28% leaf damage).