An overview of insecticides and acaricides with new chemistries for the management of sucking pests in vegetable crops

Abstract

Vegetable production is facing enormous challenge to meet the future demands of growing population in India. Sucking pests are one of the major threats and cause considerable economic damage to vegetable cultivation. Many of the sucking pests like whitefly, thrips, aphids, mealybugs and mites not only cause damage by direct feeding, most of them act as vector for several plant pathogenic viruses. Coventional insecticides or acaricides are extensively used to control the sucking pests but most of them have failed due to lower efficacy, development of high folds of resistance and resurgence of the pests. Modern insecticides or acaricides with green chemistries having novel biochemical target sites are available to combat the menace of sucking pests in vegetable crops. The new products have more favourable mammalian vs insect selectivity and can be a suitable component of integrated pest management (IPM) and resistance management programmes in vegetable crops. This paper gives an overview of the innovotaive products launched over past one decade and their propsects in future vegetable pest control.