Acceptance Date                      : Sat, Jan 14 , 2015

Publishing Date                       : Wed,Feb 11,2015

Type of Paper                          : Research Article

Mode of Access                        : Open Access

Author                                      : Ngwamah J. S

Affiliation                                : Department of Biological Sciences, Federal University Lokoja, Kogi State, Nigeria

Country                                    : Nigeria 

Contact                                     : ngwamahs@yahoo.com

Abstract

Messor galla have been incriminated to be one of the causes of missing stands leading to staggered plant which results to low harvest. There has been a report that extracts of Balanite aegyptiaca can be used as an efficient bioactive preparation in mosquito control. This study was conducted to evaluate the pesticidal activity of extracts of Balanite aegyptiaca Apron star 42WS as seed dressing agent against Messor galla in Hong of Adamawa State. A total of 24 Messor galla nests were selected and subdivided into sites A and B, each of 12 nests. The efficacy of the pesticidal activity of extracts from the leaf, stem-bark, root, seed, of Balanite aegyptiaca.

Studies on the effectiveness of Balanites aegyptiaca extracts and Apron star 42 WS as seed dressing agents against Messor galla was conducted in Kala’a, Hong Local Government area of Adamawa State, Nigeria. 24 Messor galla nest were used for experiment. 12 Messor galla nest of site A were used for Broadcasted seeds. The treatment agents used were leaf powder, stem powder, seed powder, root powder and Apron star 42ws. The seeds used were Sorghum, Millet and Biniseeds. The differences in the effectiveness of various treatment agents on site A showed significant difference at 0.01 significant level, between all the treatments used. The highest percentage of seeds picked was from the control (93.83%), while least was from seed powder (14.25). Among the various treatment agents used on site A, seed powder (14.25)was the most effective seed dressing agent followed by Apron star 42ws (29.25%). The result in general indicated that seed powder was a better seed dressing agent against Messor galla than Apron star 42ws. On site B of the experiment the result indicated that, the germination of Sorghum and Millet showed no significant differences to control at 0.05 significant levels, but there was significant difference among the germination of Biniseeds at 0.05 significant levels. Least significant difference (LSD) proved Apron star 42ws to be the most effective seed dressing agent on the planted seeds. In this study Apron star demonstrated low effectiveness against Messor galla and B. aegyptiaca seed powder has proved high effectiveness against Messor galla.Therefore using B. aegyptiaca seed powder may be the best alternative in reducing burden due to the effect of Messor galla and burden due to the effect of hazardous chemical pesticide on but man and animals.