Vol. 9, Special Issue 12, Part N (2025)

The present investigation on evaluation of eco-friendly pesticides against custard apple mealybug, Maconelicoccus hirsutus (Green) was carried out at the Horticultural Instructional Farm, Chimanbhai Patel College of Agriculture, Sardarkrushinagar Dantiwada Agricultural University, Sardarkrushinagar during Kharif, 2024. Among eight eco-friendly pesticides, azadirachtin 10000 ppm (0.003%) was most effective, recording the lowest (7.86) infestation of mealybugs per fruit, closely followed by NSKE 5% (8.29 mealybugs/fruit) and L. lecanii 1.15 WP (8.85/fruit). Microbial treatments viz., B. bassiana and M. anisopliae showed moderate efficacy against mealybugs, whereas botanical extracts viz., nafatiya + dhatura and calotropis at 10% recorded higher populations of mealybugs, though all treatments significantly outperformed the untreated control. Correspondingly, azadirachtin 10000 ppm produced the highest fruit yield (69.25 q/ha) resulting in to maximum increase in yield over control (70.45%) and the treatment was at par with NSKE 5% and L. lecanii.