A field experiment was conducted in a farmer’s holding at Sethumadai, Pollachi, Tamil Nadu to develop integrated pest management strategy against sucking pest complex of cocoa including tea mosquito bugs, mealybugs and aphids during 2014-2015 using randomised block design with three treatments (IPM module, farmer’s practice and control) and replicated seven times in an area of 10,000 m2 . | Development and evaluation of integrated pest management strategy against sucking pest complex of Cocoa Theobroma cacao L. 2017 6 2 859-867 International Journal of Current Microbiology and Applied Sciences ISSN 2319-7706 Volume 6 Number 2 2017 pp. 859-867 Journal homepage http Original Research Article http Development and Evaluation of Integrated Pest Management Strategy against Sucking Pest Complex of Cocoa Theobroma cacao L. S. Srinivasnaik1 M. Suganthy1 S. Mohan Kumar2 and V. Jegadeeswari3 1 Department of Agricultural Entomology Centre for Plant Protection Studies Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Coimbatore Tamil Nadu India - 641 003 2 Centre for Plant Molecular Biology and Biotechnology CPMB amp B Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Coimbatore Tamil Nadu India - 641 003 3 Department of Spices and Plantation Crops Tamil Nadu Agricultural University Coimbatore Tamil Nadu India - 641 003 Corresponding author ABSTRACT A field experiment was conducted in a farmer s holding at Sethumadai Pollachi Tamil Nadu to develop integrated pest management strategy against sucking pest complex of cocoa including tea mosquito bugs mealybugs and aphids during 2014-2015 using randomised block design with three treatments IPM module farmer s practice and Keywords control and replicated seven times in an area of 10 000 m 2. The experimental results revealed that the IPM strategy was significantly superior to farmer s practice and untreated IPM sucking pests control in reducing the population of aphids Toxoptera aurantii mealybugs Paracoccus cocoa marginatus and Planococcus citri and tea mosquito bugs Helopeltis bradyi and H. natural enemies antonii with the mean per cent reduction of and over control respectively. yield. Number of Cryptolaemus montrouzieri Spalgis epeus syrphids and spiders recorded at 21 days after treatment were and per tree in IPM strategy as .
