Management of Lepidopteran Insect Pests through Entomopathogenic Nematodes: An Overview
Gitanjali Devi *
Department of Nematology, Assam Agricultural University, Pin-785013, Assam, India.
*Author to whom correspondence should be addressed.
Abstract
Lepidopteran pest cause significant loss in quantity and quality of produced in many agricultural and horticultural crops. Therefore management strategies should aim to reduce their population below threshold level. Though chemical pesticides are recommended for controlling these insect pests, biocontrol agents are mostly recommended in IPM programme.The most important bio-control agent is the entomopathogenic nematodes (EPNs). This review discusses the bioefficacy of some of important species of entomopathogenic nematodes against various lepidopteran insect pests.
Keywords: Entomopathogenic nematodes(EPNs), biocontrol agent, lepidoptearan insect, Steinernema spp ., Heterorhabditis spp .