Strawberry Fragaria ananassa(Weston) family Rosaceae Duchesene ex Rozier is an important fruit, grown throughout the world (Manganaris et al., 2014). In highland regions of Indonesia farmers make strawberry products for agroindustry and agribusiness (Arystia et al., 2019). The fruits are bright red color, juicy texture, aromatic and sweet (Massetani et al., 2017). Large quantities of strawberry fruits are majorly included in making of pies, chocolates or in foods juice (Massetani et al., 2017). The fresh form the fruits are used as botanical extracts for dietary supplements or can even be processed food products (Khatun et al., 2019). The juice extract has significant amounts of antioxidants that targets hydroxyl radicals, superoxide radicals, singlet oxygen free radicals as well as hydrogen peroxide (Khatun et al., 2019)

Commercial production of strawberry has increased by 42% in the last decade (Simpson, 2018; FAO, 2018). Florida and California are the leading states in production of strawberry in the United States with the latter producing over 91% of total strawberry (Guthman and Soto, 2021). In most areas, strawberries are grown in soil but in temperate regions, their production is inside greenhouses under soilless media 1. Engagement in worthwhile adaptation studies is necessary to access application of modern strawberry production techniques such as greenhouse, irrigation, mulching, drippage and use of different cultivation approaches and use of improved species from breeding programs (Khatun et al., 2019). Greenhouses has been preferred for crop production such as strawberry since it ensures early crop maturity, long shelf life, high yields and reduced chances of fungal diseases such as botrytis and also provides low humidity on the fruits and leaves (Oguz et al., 2021).

Despite the fact that strawberry is a high potential fruit, farmers are faced with abiotic and biotic constraints such as lack of proper training for production, lack of capital, arthropod pests and diseases (Khatun et al., 2019). Among the most serious arthropod pests are the two-spotted spider mite Tetranychusurticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae), greenhouse whitefly Trialeurodesvaporariorum (Westwood) (Hemiptera: Aleyrodidae) Zalom et al. (2018), and Scirtothrips Frankilienella species. Other economic pests include the root boring pests, seed bug Neopamerabilobata (Say) (Hemiptera: Rhyparochromidae) and the tarnished plant bug Lygus Hesperus (Knight) (Hemiptera: Miridae) which causes damage to both leaves and fruits (Hata et al., 2020; Talton et al., 2020).

The management of strawberry pests has been majorly reliant on application of chemical pesticides which over time leads to resistance development causing inefficiency and retention of residues (Varma and Saran, 2019). Natural extracts such as neem based biopesticides and entomopathogenic fungal formulations e.g Beauvaria bassiana are effective, safe and have no residual effect. They are also biodegradable and exhibit stimulating effect on plant metabolism.

Effects of Neemraj andBeauvitech on pest incidences on soil and hydroponically grown strawberry From this research a total of six different pest species were observed. These included Thrips Franklienella occidentalis, spidermites Tetranychusspp, tarnished plant bug Lygus lineoraris, strawberry weevil Ortiorhynchusspp, crickets and predatory spiders. The study reveals that pest abundance and diversity was observed in soil based grown strawberry than in hydroponic grown media.

Based on this research, management of various pests such as spidermites, thrips, strawberry weevil and tarnished plant bug using Neemraj and Beauvitech was found to have significant differences in both soil and pumice grown strawberry. Additional research by Pascoli et al. (2019) oil extracted from the Neem plant has higher potential as a pesticide because of fungicidal, nematicidal, insecticidal and bactericidal activities.

The potential of using Neem and Beauvaria bassiana for pest control is supported by Islam and Omar (2012) reported that combining the two products had synergistic effect that giving a significant deterrence index in management of white flies whereby reduction in oviposition rates as well as number of adults in egg plants as compared to cases where each treatment was used alone.

Guruligappa et al. (2010) reported that inoculation of plants with Beauvaria bassiana and other entomopathogens have a wider ecology as well as more influence on herbivorous insects performance. In relation to this study, Dara (2016) observed that use of entomopathogenic fungi is able to manage all life stages of insect pests but nymphal stages that molt earlier before infection occurs, have shown minimal susceptibility and therefore combination of Beauvaria bassiana or Metarrhiziumbrunneum with Azadiractin has more potential to target young and mature stages of different pests.

Further support on the findings have been given by Mantzoukas and Eliopoulos (2020) by indicating that growth medium, species of the entomopathogen used, age and plant species, conidial density as well as method of inoculation involved are major factors that may also affect colonization. Further explanation is by Vidal and Jaber (2015) stating that ability of B. bassiana to produce metabolites such as bassianin, beauvaricin, oosporein, oxalic acid, tenellin, several bassinolides as well as other unknown metabolites into the plant system triggers defense mechanism resulting to management of insect pests attacking plants which have been colonized with endophytic EPF.

There were no observations made on cricket damage in pumice media. This can be explained by the fact that crickets prefer warm loamy soils to hide in and later emerge at night to feed. However damage was recorded in soil grown strawberry whereby young leaves were eaten and irregular and rugged markings were seen on the leaves. As the plants matured the cricket damage was not noticeable and the crop survived well.

In the current study, there were significant differences observed on the pest populations of different pests observed to have affected the soil and hydroponically grown strawberry crop. Combined use of Neemraj and Beauvitech has additive effects on the pest populations as compared to using each treatment individually. This is supported by Konecka et al., (2020) who reported that combination use of microbial and botanical pesticides have synergistic effects and majorly targets the immune system of the insects.

Schintzer (2007) mentions that the use of soilless growing cultures does not wholly guarantee complete absence of pests and diseases but provides ways to reduce infestations and as such hydroponics use in the greenhouse provides ways for protecting plants with ability to easily control external factors as compared to crop growing in the soil media.

In a study on pest and disease management in soilless cultures Schitnzer (2007) noted that similar pests and diseases can attack crops grown in both soil and soilless cultures but extents of severity and frequency may differ. This concept has been confirmed in this study through observations that there were lesser pests in hydroponic (pumice) set up as compared to soil grown strawberry

In the present study combined use of Beauvaria bassiana and Neemraj in management of thrips in both hydroponic and soil grown strawberry indicated significant effect on the number of thrips in strawberry plants.

The possibility of combining various neem products with various strains of Beauvaria bassiana was investigated and found worth by several researchers 2. The potential to give synergistic effects by combining entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) and neem product against various pests was reported against Epilachnadeodecastigma3, Spodoptera litura (Mohan et al., 2007), Bemisiatabaci4 and Anacridummelanorhadon5 among others.

Similar reports by Islam et al., (2010a) indicated that use of Beauvaria bassiana and neem as a combined foliar application gave the highest mortality incidence (97.2%) of Bemisiatabaci while individual applications of the treatments gave lower mortalities with Beauvaria bassiana (107conia/ml) at 70.4% neem (0.5%) at 77.3% respectively. From a research on eggplant (Islam et al., 2010b) found that there was toxicity increase on nymphs of Bemisiatabaci when Beauvaria bassiana was used as a foliar application and that combining neem and B.bassiana as a treatment showed whitefly nymphs reduced significantly on eggplants.

The findings have also been supported by studies conducted by Islam et al., (2010b) and indicated that combined use of neem and B. bassiana in management of Bemisiatabaci in eggplants gave 27.6 and 20.5% more nymphal mortality within 7 days after application as compared to applying each treatment individually.

The potential of neem in pest control has been strongly affirmed from by Kumari et al. (2020) research work that showed effective management of Helicoverpa amigera, Spodoptera frugipeda, Anopheles stephensi, Cnaphalocrocismedinalis and Diaphorina citri among others.

Neem (azadirachtin) does not directly kill pests but rather alters life processes of the pests such as feeding, reproduction, metamorphosis. This has been associated with the presence of and organic molecule tetranortriterpenoids which has a similar structure to insect hormones referred to as ecdysones. Neem is known to possess antibacterial and germicidal properties which are important for protecting plants from different kinds of pests 6.Uses of B. bassiana in thrips control have been supported by Bennison et al. (2017) indicating that different types of entomopathogenic fungi have been used in management of thrips.

In the present study combined treatment of Neemraj and Beauvitech had significant results in management of thrips in both hydroponic and soil grown strawberry as compared to using each treatment alone and thrips populations were highest in control plots Beauvitech 6.4 and Neemraj 2.6 and Neemraj &Beauvitech 2.1 and control 11.7 for hydroponic media. For soil media thrips populations were as follows; Beauvitech 31.0, Neemraj 8.1, Neemraj and Beauvitech 5.6 and control 41.9.

For the tarnished plant bug, there was notable difference in the numbers observed in both soil and hydroponic media upon treatment with Neemraj and Beauvitech but best management was in plots treated with combined Neemraj and Beauvitech 3.3, followed by Neemraj 3.8, Beauvitech 7.2.

Beauvaria bassiana has been found to have effective impact in the management of adults major strawberry pests such as Otiorhynchus ovatus, tarnished plant bug Lygus lineolaris and bud weevil clipper Anthonomus signatus in Quebec , Canada 6 with a concentration of 1X 107 causing a mortality rates of between 23.3 and 100%.

Application of neem(800pm) and combining with a B. bassiana trap on palm tree trunks was very efficient in managing egg laying by red palm weevils in wounded palm tree trunks 7. Similarly a combination of neem and B. bassiana in this study has been effective in managing the thrips, spidermites, lygus bugs and strawberry weevils.

The potential of Neem as a pesticide has also been supported by Minista et al. ( 2017) in Cameroon where research indicated that use of Neem extract on sweet potato crop Ipomoea batatas L., caused mortality of sweet potato weevil Cylas puncticollis(Boheman) which is a major pest causing approximately 97% damage. Saleem et al., (2019) reported that use of azadiractin had a moderate efficacy in controlling pests in hydroponically grown cucumber andanaged Tetranychusurticae(69%) and Cotton aphid Aphis gossypii Glover (Hemiptera: Aphididae)(56%).

In comparison between hydroponically and soil grown strawberry studies, it was observed that there was higher strawberry plants survival (80%) than in soil grown system (˂50%) which is largely associated with pest incidences and severe damage on soil grown crop than in hydroponics and that despite providing similar pest management practices to both soil and hydroponic growing cultures, soil grown plants had severe pest damage as aphids and spider mites thrived best in soil than in hydroponics 8.

This study has demonstrated that using a combination of Azadiractin and Beauveria bassiana as pesticides in integrated pest management in strawberry greatly reduced various pest populations. However more trials on other crops and possible natural combinations can be conducted to encourage safer and friendly pest management options.