ABSTRACT
Going by the way botanical pesticides are slowly becoming important and accepted in the control of agricultural pests of crops, the experiment aimed to evaluate the effect of aqueous extract of bitter leaf on Fall armyworm larvae under laboratory conditions. Treatment were three concentrations 25%, 50% and 75% prepared by serial dilution of the aqueous extract, control (distilled water), 0.3% of sniper as standard check. It was fitted into a randomized complete block design with four replicates, larval instars two and three were used for this experiment. Mortality was recorded at 24, 48 and 72hours of exposure. It increased with time and concentration as 50% and 75% recorded the highest mortality after 72hours.
Also, the phytochemical analysis of the extract confirmed the presence of glycosides, alkaloids, tannins, saponins, anthraquinones, phenolics, steroids, resins, terpenoids and flavonoids.
From the result, bitter leaf is a natural source of repellant material and possess great pesticidal properties and therefore can be adopted as a safe and natural pesticide, it has great effect on the mortality of the larvae of Fall armyworm.
