The effectiveness of biological and botanical pesticides against Chionaspis sp. on Sandalwood in South Central Timor Regency, East Nusa Tenggara

Abstract

The scale insect (Chionaspis sp.) is one of the destructive pests on both sandalwood (Santalum album Linn.) seedling and sapling in East Nusa Tenggara (ENT). The use of chemical pesticides for suppressing the chionaspis attack on sandalwood is not suggested concerning the environmental and health issues. Therefore, the purpose of the study was to determine the efficacy level of several botanical and biological pesticides to manage sandalwood scale insects. This study was conducted in the sandalwood nursery and sandalwood plantation in South Central Timor Regency, ENT. There were eight treatments as follows: control (only water no pesticide); chemical pesticide with chlorpyrifos active ingredient as the comparison; three biological pesticide treatments (Metarhizium sp. formulation, Beauveria sp. formulation, and Bactospeine formulation); and three botanical pesticide treatments (Chromolaena odorata formulation, neem/Azadirachta indica formulation, and commercial neem pesticide). The parameters are the intensity of sandalwood scale insect attack, the height, and the diameter of sandalwood seedlings and saplings. The results show the highest level of bio-pesticide efficacy in the nursery, and the field was neem formulation with a percentage of 50.86% and 58.67%, respectively.