Vol. 11, Issue 5 (2022)

Author(s):
Priyanka Spring, Sasya Nagar and Pradeep Kumar Shukla

Abstract:
Vector-borne diseases (VBDs) are causing mortality of almost 2 million people including nearly a million children every year across the globe. Thus mosquito control assumes worldwide importance and because of indiscriminate use of artificial insecticides creates multifarious complications including environmental pollution, insecticide resistance and toxic unsafe to person. Whereas, biopesticides offer an alternative to synthetic insecticides because they purpose low environmental pollution, much less toxic to human beings, less-hazardous to non-target biota, and also cheaper due to innate bio-degradability. For this reason biopesticides is an eco-friendly approach to be correctly used in insect control including mosquitoes. The goal of the present study is to investigate the larvicidal activity of phyto extracts of tender leaves of tomato (Lycopersicon esculentum) against first to fourth larval stages of dengue vector i.e. Aedes aegypti, under the laboratory conditions. Mortality was examined visually at time interval of 24 hours upto 72 hours of exposure. The leaf extract exhibited promising larvicidal activity exhibiting 93.1% mortality, achieved at 30 and 40 ppm concentration levels of leaf extract after 72 hours of exposure in the 1st instar larvae of Aedes aegypti. The negative control showed lesser mortality. Thus the results indicate that tomato leaf extract could plausibly be utilized as an alternative to synthetic insecticide against the various larval stages of Aedes aegypti.