Seasonal incidence and management of red cotton bug (Dysdercus konini) infesting Bt cotton under red lateritic zone of West Bengal

A field study was undertaken in the Institutional Research Farm, Institute of Agriculture, Visva-Bharati, Sriniketan to evaluate the seasonal incidence and population variation of red cotton bug with respect to weather conditions and its insecticidal management during kharif, 2018-19. Experiments were conducted in a Randomized Block Design (RBD) with three replications having nine different insecticidal treatments including one untreated control. Red cotton bug population was recorded from Second week of August and continued till harvest with a peak population Peak population at Second week of November. Multivariate correlation studies showed that the red cotton bug population was significantly positively correlated with Temperature Gradient and significantly negatively correlated with Relative Humidity and Rainfall. Among the different insecticides tested combination of Imidacloprid 6% + Lambda Cyhalothrin 4% SL @ 500 ml/ha proved most effective and giving 71.14% and 94.84% pest population reduction in two consecutive treatment imposition.