Pesticide activity of unripe neem fruit milk on chosen sucking and defoliators pests

ABSTRACT Many phytochemicals have been used to manage the economically important insect pest. One of the most promising phytochemicals is azadirachtin, a bioactive principle of Azadirachta indica. This key ingredient is present in the leaves, stem, fruit, flower, and bark of the neem tree. There is numerous research work that has been done against insect pests using azadirachtin as a pesticide. So far no work has been done by using unripe neem fruit milk against insect pests. In this work, unripe neem fruit milk is used as the toxicant at different concentrations (0.1, 0.2, 0.4, and 0.8%) against Dysdercus koenigii fourth nymphal instars, Spodoptera litura third stadium larvae, Helicoverpa armigera third stadium larvae, Aulacophora foveicollis adults, Sphenarches caffer larvae, and Dysdercus koenigii eggs. From this study, the result reveals that unripe fruit of neem milk at 0.8% is highly effective against S. litura third-stadium larvae (100±0.00%) and A. foveicollis adults (100±0.00%), followed by D. koenigii fourth nymphal instars (91.67±8.33%); S. caffer larvae (68.75±11.97%) at 96 hours; and the toxicant is least effective against H. armigera third-stadium larvae (12.00±4.89). The ovicidal activity is effective at 0.8% against D. koenigii eggs at 72 and 96 hrs. The test material also caused morphological deformities, and hence we suggest utilizing unripe neem fruit milk as a pesticidal material. Key words: Unripe neem fruit milk, toxicant, leaf dip method, Insect pests, LCs