Study on oviposition deterrence and feeding inhibition methods for reduction the damage of melon fruit pests

Document Type : Research paper-Persian

Authors

1 MSc

2 Scientific Board/Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection

3 Scientific board/Islamic Azad University

Abstract

The fruit flies and cucurbit weevil are the most important pests of melon which reduce the quantity and quality of the product. Several different synthetic insecticides have been used to control melon fruit pests by farmers. To reduce the use of chemical insecticides, application of non-chemical methods were tested in the melon farms in Semnan region in 2014. Fruit cover with paper and cloth net, kaolin clay (Sepidan® WP 95%, 50000 ppm), mixture of kaolin (50000 ppm) and sulfur (WDG 80%, 10000 ppm), mixture of kaolin (50000 ppm) and azadirachtin (Nimarin® EC 15%, 2500 ppm), and dimethoate insecticide (Roxion® EC 40%, 1500 ppm) were sprayed over the whole canopy of melon. Based on the field studies, fruit covering and kaolin application deterred oviposition and reduced the fruit pest's damage. The percentage of oviposition deterrence for fruit flies and cucurbit weevil, were 93.4, 78.2 for fruit cover with cloth net treatment and 83.5 and 38.2 for mixture of kaolin and sulfur treatment, respectively. The percentage of damage reduction for melon fruit pests, were 11, 14, 22, 25 and 86 in cloth net cover, paper cover, mixture of kaolin and sulfur, kaolin and control treatments, respectively. Also, the results show that the fruit weight was increased in the kaolin treatments. Therefore, application of fruit covers and mineral compounds such as kaolin and sulfur could be used successfully to reduce fruit pest oviposition and its damage on melon.

Keywords

Plant Protection (Scientific Journal of Agriculture)
Volume 40, Issue 4
October 2017
Pages 61-72

Files

Share

How to cite

Statistics