Seasonal Incidence & Management of Important Insect and Nematode Pests

Cucurbits are attacked by several insect and nematode pests at different growth stages that cause defoliation of leaves, damage to roots, flowers or fruits, contribute to poor crop stand. Economic losses in various cucurbits due to root-knot nematodes have been estimated as, cucumber 6-18%, bottle gourd 21-23%, ridge gourd 17%, bitter gourd 13-14%. These cucurbits were attacked by aphids, whitefly, leaf miner, red pumpkin beetle etc. The bacterial formulations namely, Bacillus megaterium, Bacillus amyloliquefaciens, Pseudomonas fluorescens and Pseudomonas putida were found effective against M.incognita in bottle gourd and showed better results when applied along with neem cake under field conditions. the local strains of EPNs, H. bacteriophora and S. feltiae were effective against maggots and pupae of fruit fly, B tau. The maggots were more susceptible to nematode infection than pupae.