Maize is the second most widely grown cereal and gaining importance as a highly nutritious crop in Ethiopia. However, it is severely destroyed by storage insect pests and needs further research to minimize losses. In line with this, research was initiated to evaluate the efficacy of two botanical plant powders (Eucalyptus globulus Labill leaf and Chenopodium ambrosioides L. whole plant) against storage insect pests of maize grains of two maize varieties (BH-661 and Limu) in polypropylene sacks storage conditions at Jimma Zone, Sokoru district. The plant powders were compared with untreated control, and completely randomized design was used in the experiment with three replications for each treatment. Germination capacity, thousand grain weights, percent of insect damage, and weight loss of the stored grains were evaluated and reported in the range of 69.67–94.33%, 318.7–339.3 g, 3.67–50%, and 0.2843–5.22%, respectively, after five months of storage for grains treated with botanicals. However, germination capacity of 10% and 65.33%, percent insect damage of 80.33% and 48%, and weight loss of 23.53% and 5.89% were observed for BH-661 and Limu varieties, respectively, after five months of storage for untreated control. The result indicated that both tested botanicals were effective in protecting the storage insect pests and maintaining the quality of the grains tested in comparison with control and Chenopodium ambrosioides L. whole plant powder is more effective. Although there was significant protective effect compared to untreated control, their effectiveness was decreased drastically after five and three months of storage for Chenopodium ambrosioides L. whole plant powder and Eucalyptus globulus Labill leaf powder, respectively. It is recommended that further research should be done to check if the increasing rate of application increases protection duration of these botanicals and the toxicity of Chenopodium ambrosioides L. should be further studied to use it as a storage insect protectant of maize grains intended for food purpose.

A B S T R A C T Nutrition plays a pivotal role in sericulture. It improves the growth, development, health, feed consumption and conversion of silkworm thereby improving the commercial traits. Silkworm, Bombyx mori L., is a monophagous insect that drives all required nutrients for its growth and development from mulberry leaf. Some plant extracts are feeding stimulants and improve the nutritional intake, growth, disease resistance/tolerance of silkworm ultimately improving the cocoon traits. The present investigation was carried with an objective to determine the impact of fortification of M 5 mulberry leaves with botanicals on growth and commercial traits of B. mori (PM×CSR 2 ). Three botanicals (Parthenium hysterophorus L., Phyllanthus niruri Hook and Psoralea coryleifolia) were tested along with two controls. The experiment was laid in CRD replicated three times. Feeding of fortified leaves with the plant extracts led to better larval growth and development which ultimately reflected in the economic traits of PM×CSR 2 silkworm hybrid. Fifth instar 5th day larval weight (26.25 and 27.52 g/10), mature larval weight (28.63 and 30.13 g/10), ERR (98.33 and 100.00%), cocoon weight (18.06 and 18.79 g/10), shell weight (3.68 and 3.72 g/10), pupal weight (14.30 and 15.23 g/10), shell ratio (20.38 and 19.80%), filament length (901.03 and 910.95 m) and silk productivity (4.04 and 4.097 cg per day) in two rearing were found significantly maximum for P. coryleifolia fortified leaves fed worms followed by P. niruri besides reducing larval duration and cocoon filament denier compared to other treatments. Thus, fortification of mulberry leaves with P. coryleifolia and P. niruri leaf extracts had favorably influenced PM×CSR 2 larval growth leading to significantly better economic traits. There is a need to identify the active principle(s), standardize and formulate the botanicals and develop better administration techniques for commercial silkworm rearing.

Field pea Pisum sativum L. is an important legume crop in Ethiopia and insect pests are the major constraints in its production. Amongst these pea weevil Bruchus pisorum L. is important. This study evaluates the effects of lambda cyhalothrin (Karate 50EC), chlorantraniliprole (Coragen 200SC) and carbaryl (Sevin 85WP) under field conditions at the Holetta Agricultural Research Center, Ethiopia. The insecticides were applied at flowering, pod setting and both at flowering and pod setting stages, using the susceptible variety ‘Burkitu’ in randomized complete block design. The results revealed that there was no significant difference among the treatments. Similarly, insecticide application frequency and crop phenology had no effect on the incidence of egg and larvae in field, and on adult emergence under storage conditions.