VEGETABLE PESTS AND THEIR NATURAL ENEMIES IN BARBADOS

Vegetable crops in Barbados are attacked by a complex of insect pests, which in turn, are attacked by a number of natural enemies. The more important pests recorded are diamond-back moth on cabbage, melon-worm and leafminer on cucurbits, cotton semilooper, flea beetle and pinworm on tomato, cotton semilooper, armyworms and a leaf stitcher on beans, a leaf defoliator and a red spider mite on okra, and a leaf webber and armyworms on beetroot. A complex of both indigenous and introduced parasites help to contain these pests within reasonable economic control, although at certain times outbreak conditions occur and insecticides have to be used to reduce the pest population. Parasites such as Cotesia plutellae (Kurd].), Copidosoaa sp. nr. truocatellum (Dalman), Teleoomus remus Nixon and Trichogramaa spp. have contributed most of the biological control of these pests and continue to play a major role in the field