Studies on residues of flufenzin and fenpyroximate on brinjal.

Accepted : January, 2009 Red spider mites (Tetranychus sp.) have now become serious menace for the cultivation of vegetables. Intensive year-round cultivation often leads to increased flare-ups necessitating more rigid pest control. Chemical control mostly constitutes use of broadspectrum insecticides/acaricides, which poses deleterious impact on biodiversity resulting into reduction of overall population of natural enemies and other beneficial biological species. Repeated use of such chemicals and/or increase in their dosages have unnecessarily led to severe problems such as additional insecticide cost, elimination of beneficial fauna, unintended toxic residues and more importantly, the ability of pests to adapt to high pesticides use environment. In turn, field management has now become a more difficult task. In recent years, the emphasis is being laid on low risk acaricide active at low dose and is less harmful to non-targeted species. New generation acaricides with novel chemistries are being developed and claimed to be selective against target mite species with little or no effect on beneficials / environment. Two such new molecules viz., Fenpyroximate 5 EC (5%) and Flufenzin 200 SC (20%) were selected for the studies. Fenpyroximate is a contact poison belonging to pyrazole group and acts as mitochondrial electron transportinhibitor. Flufenzin is a mite growth regulator (new tetrazine analogue) having both contact and translaminar action. Contemplating their use on vegetables, especially on brinjal, the data on magnitude of residues of these compounds after application is of immense importance from the consumers’ safety point of view.