NOVEL INSECTICIDES FOR MANAGEMENT OF INSECT PESTS IN VEGETABLE CROPS : A REVIEW

Abstract

During the last five decades conventional insecticides, all neuroactive chemicals have played major role in management of insect pests in vegetables, their indiscriminate uses led to several problems like resistance, residue, resurgence and safety to environment. The focus on insecticide research shifted to search for and development of new green chemistries having novel biochemical targets in the context of pest control and resistance management. Now it is in a renaissance of integrating chemicals and biologicals for sustainable pest control with human safety. In recent years, several new insecticide groups having new chemistries viz., neonicotinoids, oxadiazines, diamides, ketoenols, phenylpyrazoles, pyridines, flonicamid, METI (Mitochondrial Electron Transport Inhibitor) acaricides, diafentiuron, tetrazines, thiazolidinones, oxazolines, and insecticides from soil microorganisms such as avermectins, milbemycins, spinosyns, pyrrole nsecticides and insect growth regulators like benzoylureas, triazines, diacylhydrazines, juvenile hormone analogues/mimcs have been discovered and commercialized for uses in modern crop protection. Because of the relatively low risk to non-target organisms and environment, high target specificity and their versatility in application methods, these important classes of new insecticides will certainly play a greater role in the present context of environmental safety and their consequent uses in integrated pest management and insect resistance management programmes. This review pertains to the to the most promising compounds along with unique characteristics in the light of their uses in agriculture in general and vegetables in particular.