INSECTICIDAL CONTROL OF BROAD MITE, TWO SPOTTED SPIDER MITE AND WHITEFLY ON EGGPLANT, VAR ‘Zebra’ 2007

Broad mites, spider mites and whiteflies are the principal pests of eggplant in Florida, with at least one or both of the mites requiring chemical intervention for optimal yield. Greenhouse-raised eggplant seedlings were transplanted on 21 Feb at 18 inch spacing in single rows on a set of 3 beds, and covered with polyethylene film mulch. Approximately 25 % of the fertilizer was preplant soil incorporated (granular 15-0-15) with the remainder applied as liquid 8-0-8 delivered by drip irrigation. A 120 ft length section of each row was used in this experiment. Plots were 20 ft long assigned across the 3 beds, 4 times in a randomized complete block design. The first application was made on 11 Apr using an EZ-Dose sprayer with a pressure of 45 psi and a flow rate of 3.7 gpm. Treatments were applied at 20 gpa. A high clearance sprayer was used on 11 May for the second application operating at 200 psi and 2.3 mph with the spray delivered through two vertical booms using yellow Albuz® hollow cone nozzles that applied 10 gpa each for a total of 80 gpa. All stages of mites and whitefly preimaginal stages were monitored on 23-Apr, 1, 10, 18, 23, 31-May, and 7-Jun by collecting a young leaf from 5 plants in each plot and examining under a stereoscopic microscope. Eggplants were harvested on 16 and 30 May and total number of fruit and weight were recorded. Broad mite damage to fruit was rated as: 0 = no damage, 1 = slight tarnishing of calyx, 2 = moderate browning of calyx, 3 = severe browning and pitting of calyx, 4 = fruit with damage. Data were analyzed with ANOVA and means separated with Fisher’s Protected LSD P = 0.05.