Impact of Neem and Tobacco plant extracts on Gossypium hirsutum (Malvales: Malvaceae) sucking insect pests in the Bahawalnagar District of Punjab Province

Cotton is a cash crop and used all over the world. Plant extracts can be used for the management of pests that are injurious to plants. Plant extracts have an important role in crop protection, although most commonly in combination with other tools including chemical pesticides as part of Bio-intensive Integrated Pest Management. To investigate the controlling effect of plant extracts (PEs) on sucking pests of cotton, a field experiment was conducted and the experiment was comprised of four replications. Plant extracts were applied in three treatments, Control, Foliar application of tobacco extract, and Foliar application of Neem extract. Data regarding pest population was collected after one day after the application of PEs, three days after the application of PEs, seven days after the application of PEs, and,10 days after the application of PEs. Foliar application of Neem extract after the application of three and seven days of extracts showed good results by reducing the jassid and whitefly population to about 60-70%. Similarly, tobacco extract also showed better results by reducing the whitefly and jassid population to about 50-60% as compared to the control treatment in the crop of cotton. These findings will help control sucking insect pests of cotton with or without using of pesticides.