Efficiency of certain insecticides compared to selected alternatives on onion thrips (Thrips tabaci Lind.) under field conditions

The experiments were carried out at farm of Plant Protection Department, Faculty of Agriculture, Al Azhar University, Assiut governorate, Egypt during two successive seasons 2014/2015 and 2015/2016 to evaluate the impact of the commonly insecticides, methomyl (Lannate ® 90% SP), imidacloprid (Chinok35%sc), spinetoram (Radiant 12% SC) comparedto some alternatives, mineraloil (Super misrona 94% EC) and azadirachtin (Nemazal 17 % EC) against thrips, Thrips tabaci Lindeman; Thysanoptera: Thripidae. The highest and lowest thrips reduction percentages were observed in plots treated with methomyl and azadirachtin, respectively. The use of azadirachtin suggested as an alternative to conventional insecticides which proved to be a potential biological control agent of T. tabaci. Methomyl gave the highest mean weight of the crop by percentage (4.75), while the treatment of azadirachtin achieved the lowest mean weight of the crop by percentage 3.46 while the values of 4.54, 3.87, 3.71 where found with imidacloprid, spinetoram and mineral oil respectively.