Abstract

Efficacy of Tagetes minuta, Artemisia absinthium, Allium sativum, Carica papaya was assessed against rape aphid, Bervicorye brassicae. Experiments were conducted under laboratory and field conditions. Dimethoate (40 g/l) and distilled water were used as positive and negative controls, respectively. A completely randomized design was used for laboratory experiment and a randomized complete block design was used for field experiment. Relative to distilled water control, all botanicals reduced the aphid populations throughout the exposure periods, even though they had a lower impact compared to dimethoate, both under laboratory and field conditions. The aphid population reduction for T. minuta, A. absinthium, A. sativum and C. papaya was 50–56, 40–60, 33–40 and 10–20%, respectively, for laboratory experiments, whereas for field experiments there was 46–63, 66–72, 44–61 and 32–38% reduction, respectively. Dimethoate had significantly the highest aphid population reduction of 80–90% in the laboratory, whereas in the field it was not significantly different from T. minuta, A. absinthium and A. sativum. In conclusion, T. minuta, A. absinthium and A. sativa had the potential for serving as a phytoinsecticide against B. brassicae.