ABSTRACT
Rodents are the major limiting factor right from nursery to harvest stage in paddy. Repeated application of rodenticides for managing rodent damage may lead to development of resistance among rodents, environment risks and human health hazards. Hence, Field experiments were carried out to evaluate the efficacy of various botanicals as alternatives against rodent pests instead of continuous application of rodenticides in irrigated rice ecosystem during kharif and rabi seasons of 2011-12. The efficacy of botanicals was assessed by live burrow count before and after imposition of treatments at 7 and 15 days after treatment during tillering and panicle initiation stage of the rice crop. Among all the botanicals evaluated for their efficacy against rodent pests the commercial castor based product, Ecodon recorded highest percent control success ranging from 44.36 to 59.20 % followed by crude castor oil (10%). The Crude castor oil (10%) was also proven to be superior next to Ecodon in order of efficacy against rodent pests. The other botanicals like pongamia oil, neem oil and papaya extract shown no significant control success in suppression of rodent pests. It is inferred from the present study that botanicals cannot substitute the rodenticides in rodent management but can be used in combinations and alternate applications in minimizing their incidence in irrigated paddy.