Evaluation of some new insecticide mixtures for management of litchi fruit borer

Litchi fruit borer is a serious threat of litchi production causing significant economic losses. Insecticides are the first choice to the farmers to manage this serious pest of litchi. Therefore, field experiments were conducted to evaluate some new mixture formulation of insecticides against litchi fruit borer during 2013 and 2014. The experiments were conducted at the Horticultural Farm of Bidhan Chandra Krishi Viswavidyalaya, Kalyani, Nadia, West Bengal, India in litchi orchard (cv. Bombai). Results of the experiments revealed that all the treatments were significantly superior over control. Chlorantraniliprole 9.3% +lambda cyhalothrin 4.6 % 150 ZC @ 35 g a.i./ha provided the best result both in terms of minimum fruit infestation (12.12 %) and maximum yield (95.92 kg/plant in weight basis and 4316.5 fruit/plant in number basis) followed by the treatment chlorantraniliprole10% +thiamethoxam 20% 300 SC @150 g a.i./ha (13.10% mean fruit infestation). Amongst the various treatments, thiamethoxam 25WG was the least effective as this treatment recorded the highest fruit infestation (22.88 % mean fruit infestation) and thereby lowest yield (78.16 kg/plant in weight basis and 3517 fruit/ plant in number basis).