Evaluation of biocontrol efficiency of symbiotic bacteria of entomopathogenic nematodes against Plutella xylostella, Diamondback Moth in cruciferous vegetable crops in seedling trays under greenhouse conditions

Photorhabdus and Xenorhabdus bacteria share a mutualistic relationship with Steinernematidae and Heterorhabditidae nematode families, respectively. The present study was undertaken to determine the biocontrol efficiency of the symbiotic bacteria of entomopathogenic nematodes for diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella in cruciferous vegetable crops. Biocontrol efficiency of symbiotic bacteria was determined in seedling trays with different treatment combinations of individual as well as combination of bacteria along with Bacillus thuringiensis as reference strain and the results had shown that the treatments imposed with the consortia of all the five bacterial isolates were able to show significantly higher biocontrol efficiency compared to the other treatment groups imposed with the individual symbiotic bacterial isolates. Among the treatments with individual bacterial isolates the treatments imposed with EPB3 (Xenorhabdus sp.) had significantly higher biocontrol efficiency compared to the Photorhabdus strains. This study shows that the symbiotic bacteria of entomopathogenic nematodes has greater potential to be exploited in the management of diamondback moth further in the field studies.