Alternative insecticides for the control of the mango mealy bug, Drosicha mangiferae Green to overcome the failure of usually available insecticides.

The descending order of toxicity of ten insecticides evaluated against the adults of Drosicha mangiferae Green together with LC50, value in parentheses was lambdacyhalothrin (0.0024), alphamethrin (0.0196), decamethrin (0.0209), cypetmethrin (0.0292), methyl parathion (0.0385), fenvalerate (0.0454), monocrotophos (02357) and endosulfan (0.9303). The remaining two insecticides, viz., lindane and malathion were practically ineffective. As high as 1 per cent concentration gave only 10–20 per cent mortality of the mealy bug. Thus, the synthetic pyrethroid lambdacyhalothrin was most toxic. Among the commonly available non-pyrethroid insecticides, however, methyl parathion offered promise for the successful control of Drosicha mangiferae as evidenced by its relatively low LC50 value.