Document Type : Pest Management
Authors
Abstract
For nearly 50 years, insecticides have been used for sunn pest control. The foliar spraying is the most widely used application method in Iran. More than 75 percent of total sprayed areas belongs to ground application and the rest is covered by aerial application. Hydraulic lance sprayers (HLS) are the most common ground sprayer used in sunn pest control. Financial restraints such as the cost of labor, water and environmental pollution have necessitated new techniques. A HLS was compared with a Controlled Droplet Application (CDA) or micronair to find the most effective way to spray fenitrothion for control sunn pest nymphs in wheat field. Three micronair treatments (fenitrothion EC 50% at 0.5, 0.75 and 1 L/ha), one HLS treatment (fenitrothion EC 50% at 1.3 L/ha) and control were tested in a randomized complete block design with 4 replications. This experiment was carried out at three nymphal stages of sunn pest (2nd, 4th and 5th). Only micronair treatment at 0.5 L/ha was significantly less efficient than the other treatments (85±1.9%) in control of sunn pest nymphs. But the rest of micronair treatments controlled sunn pest nymphs in the same rate as HLS treatment (93.43-95.32%). In all of the micronair treatments, insecticide deposit on high canopy was more than HLS treatment. The waste of spray and mechanical damage to wheat fields by CDA were much lower than by HLS. The CDA is light and easy to use and requires 10-50 liter of spray per hectare wheras HLS requires 200-400 L/ha. The CDA is proper sprayer for fields where the conventional sprayers even aerial sprayer, could not be used. It is concluded that light weight, accurate delivery and controlled droplet application in CDA create a more efficient technique to apply pesticides being unavailable before
Keywords
)