Kombinierte Wirksamkeit von Entomopathogenen und Insektiziden

With the advent of modern agriculture in the 1960s, grubs have attained the status of a national pest. Growers of sugarcane, paddy, jowar, tobacco, corn, and chili are facing the problem of grubs in the Kolhapur district. Recently, it has been reported that Leucopholis lepidophora (Blanchard) is infesting sugarcane, rice, and peanut cultivation in western Maharashtra, particularly in the Kolhapur region. There is a need to develop alternative environmentally friendly and economically viable strategies for controlling the white grubs. Biological pest control could be promising in combating the white grub. Entomopathogenic fungi and entomopathogenic nematodes show high infection rates in the population of white grubs. The combined application of EPF, EPN, and insecticides appears to be an environmentally friendly strategy against the white grub. Against this background, the compatibility of Metarhizium anisopliae and Heterorhabditis indica with Imidacloprid for the control of the white grub, Leucopholis lepidophora, was investigated in laboratory and pot culture experiments.