author(s)
Saritha R, Sujatha V, Haseena SK and Sirisha ABM

abstract
An experiment was laid out to evaluate the bio-efficacy of various insecticides against sucking pests in sesame, at Agricultural Research Station, Yellamanchili, Visakhapatnam, Andhra Pradesh, during kharif and rabi-summer, 2018. All the insecticide interventions were significantly superior to check in reducing the population of sucking pests. Seed treatment with imidacloprid (7.5 grams per kg of seed) was found efficacious till 30 days of sowing and registered least population of thrips (4.83), leaf hoppers (1.66) and aphids (1.03) per plant. Among different insecticides tested, persistent and significant reduction in pest incidence was noticed when the imidacloprid 17.8 SL (0.25 ml/l) and diafenthiuron 50WP (1.25g/l) applied as foliar spray at 30 and 60 DAS. Application of midacloprid 17.8 SL (0.25 ml per liter) foliar spray was effective in controlling thrips (0.43), leaf hoppers (0.43) and aphids (0.43) population per plant which was on par with diafenthiuron 50WP (1.25g/l) which recorded thrips (0.60), leaf hoppers (0.53) and aphids (0.43) per plant at 60 DAS. These findings were further augmented with higher yield from imadacloprid 17.8 SL (0.25 ml/l) foliar spray, which achieved the 81.08% higher yield with benefit-cost ratio of 3.25 followed by diafenthiuron 50WP (1.25g/l) which recorded 65.54% increase in yield.