Vegetable crop production in our country is significantly affected by a wide range of insect pests and diseases, leading to serious quantitative and qualitative losses. Insect pests such as aphids, whiteflies, thrips, fruit borers, leaf miners and cutworms damage crops by feeding on leaves, stems, roots and fruits. They cause defoliation, sap sucking, tunneling in fruits and transmission of viral diseases. For example, fruit borers in tomato and brinjal reduce marketable yield by boring into fruits, while aphids and whiteflies transmit mosaic and leaf curl viruses. Diseases caused by fungi, bacteria and viruses such as damping off, powdery mildew, downy mildew, wilt, blight and mosaic also severely reduce productivity. Fungal diseases often spread rapidly under favorable temperature and humidity, causing rotting and drying of plant parts. Bacterial wilt blocks vascular tissues, leading to sudden plant death. Viral diseases result in stunted growth, malformed fruits and drastic yield reduction. Altogether, these biotic stresses not only decrease yield but also lower quality, increase production cost and reduce farmers’ income. Vegetable growers adopt several important steps to contain insect pests and diseases. First, selection of healthy and certified seeds and disease resistant varieties helps in preventing initial infection and reduces dependency on chemicals. Second, proper field sanitation, including removal and destruction of infected