Country bean (Lablab purpureus L.), a popular vegetable in Bangladesh, is severely affected by insect pests and diseases. Farmers’ perceptions of insect pests, diseases, and their management are critical constraints to the establishment of an effective and sustainable pest management approach for this crop. A comprehensive survey was conducted with 300 country bean farmers from six districts of Bangladesh to assess farmers’ perceptions and knowledge of the insect pests and diseases of country bean, and their management practices. The survey results show that country bean farmers have been facing varying pest problems for more than ten years. They could identify eight pests and only one beneficial insect species in their fields, including thrips and jute weevil, as new pests. Among the pests, aphids and pod borers were common in all surveyed areas. More than 80% of farmers said their bean plants were severely affected by bean yellow mosaic virus and white mold diseases. Farmers also mentioned that insect pests and diseases together caused 30–40% yield losses of this crop. About 76% of the farmers solely depended on different chemical pesticides for the production of country bean. Growers frequently used insecticides from the organophosphorus and neonicotinoid groups, and fungicides from the triazole group, to manage pests associated with this crop. Farmers start applying pesticides from the seedling stages, at three-day intervals, maintaining only two- to four-day pre-harvest intervals (PHI). Our findings provide insight into the importance of developing sustainable pest management approaches for country bean production in Bangladesh.

Irrational applications of insecticides on vegetable crops are very common in Bangladesh, resulting in harmful consequences for the environment and human health. Therefore, a study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of biological and botanical insecticides on okra shoot and fruit borer grown in open fields. Four insecticides were used in this study, namely Bacillus thuringiensis (Bt), Spinosad 45 SC, Abamectin 1.8 EC, and Azadirachtin 1% EC an untreated control. The experiment used a randomized complete block design (RCBD) with three replications. The results showed that the rate of shoot infestation was the lowest in the Spinosad-treated plot (3.80%), and the highest was in the control (20.67%). The lowest fruit infestation (3.56%) was recorded in the treated plot of Spinosad. The rate of reduction of fruit infestation over control was 80.69, 60.14, 56.45, and 55.58% in the plots treated with Spinosad, Bt, Azadirachtin, and Abamectin, respectively. Consequently, the Spinosad-treated plot attained the highest yield (8.65 t ha⁻¹), which was followed by the plots treated with Azadirachtin (6.74 t ha⁻¹), Bt (6.28 t ha⁻¹), and Abamectin (6.12 t ha⁻¹). The highest net return and benefit–cost ratio (BCR) were 542.36 US$ and 2.64, obtained respectively from the Spinosad-treated plot. The second highest BCR (1.70) was obtained from the Azadiratin-treated plot, and the lowest BCR (1.18) was recorded in the Abamectin-treated plot. Therefore, the studied insect management practices could be incorporated to attain higher yields and economic benefits for growing okra in Bangladesh.

Black solider fly (BSF) (Hermetia illucens L) is one of the potential organic protein sources which is utilised as feed for fish and poultry industries. Effective mass rearing of BSF is inevitable for future sustainable feed industries in Bangladesh. Therefore, this research was aimed at developing the sustainable mass rearing techniques for this insect’s larvae on different available food waste materials in the Bangladesh context. The study was conducted using different household waste, i.e. Rice-Fruit-Meat; Rice-Fruit-Fish; Rice-Vegetable-Meat; Rice-Vegetable-Fish; Rice-Fruit-Vegetable-Meat; and Rice-Fruit-Vegetable-Fish. Larvae reared on Rice-Fruit-Vegetable-Fish diet showed the best results among the treatments in terms of larval growth, i.e. length 23.3±0.1 mm and width 6.2±0.1 mm. The Rice-Fruit-Fish diet showed the minimum larval length (19.5±0.1 mm) and Rice-Fruit-Meat diet showed the minimum larval width (5.6±0.1 mm) compared to the other diets. Among these diets, Rice-Fruit-Vegetable-Fish diet gave the highest larval fresh weight (2.6±0.1 mg) compared to other treatments. In addition, the Rice-Fruit-Vegetable-Fish diet took less time (45.6±0.7 days) to complete its total life span, while the Rice-Fruit-Fish diet took more time (51.3±1.3 days). The absence of Fruit-Vegetable combination in diets could greatly affect the larval growth and development. It can be concluded that the diet combination of Rice-Fruit-Vegetable-Fish can be utilised for better mass production of BSF for sustainable feed production in Bangladesh.

Wild field crickets (Brachytrupes portentosus) were found to have a sex-based demand in the market of Bangladesh. This study was conducted to evaluate the influence of sex on nutritional composition ofB. portentosus. Both the male and female adultB. portentosus were found to have high nutritional value. The average weight and dry matter of female species were significantly higher compared to maleB. portentosus. On the basis of dry matter contents, the crude protein (62.1 g/100 g) and crude fibre (9.4 g/100 g) was higher in male than the protein (48.8 g/100 g dry matter; DM) and fibre (8.8 g/100 g DM) content of female species. However, crude fat content was lower in male (22.1 g/100 g DM) than female (29.9 g/100 g DM)B. portentosus. Nitrogen free extract was lower in male (2.8 g/100 g) than female (7.9 g/100 g). Consequently, the energy value was higher in female (496.6 kcal) than the male (458.3 kcal) in 100 g dry matter. High performance liquid chromatography results revealed nine essential and six non-essential amino acids found in adultB. portentosus with slight variation in males and females. Females contained all essential and non-essential amino acids in higher amount than males except for alanine, phenylalanine and threonine. Gas chromatography-mass spectrometry results showed that both male and femaleB. portentosus contained palmitic acid, stearic acid, palmitoleic acid, oleic acid and linoleic acid. However, myristic acid was only found in adult femaleB. portentosus. The atomic absorption spectroscopy results showed higher mineral contents (Ca, Mg, K, Na, Zn and Fe) in both sexes ofB. portentosus. However, male contained higher Ca and K compared to femaleB. portentosus while Zn and Fe were almost same in both sexes.