Since last two decades, the excessive and broad spectral usage of pesticides has achieved remarkable momentum in agriculture dependant countries like Pakistan. Pesticides are undoubtedly considered as a group of toxic chemicals that are introduced into the environment; most of which include insecticides, herbicides, fungicides, rodenticides and fumigants. These toxic compounds have some residues which retain in environment and not only contaminate it, but also develop resistance in target organisms against these chemicals. Frequent and repeated application of insecticides generally reduces the effectiveness and it results in the development of resistance in target pest against these insecticides. In general case, when whole population of targeted pests is selected by killing the susceptible individuals, it usually results in the emergence of resistant strains.

Present study deals with comparison of three essential oils (neem, vetiver and mint) against the most common termite species of Pakistan, Heterotermes indicola (Wasmann). Oils were tested for repellency, toxicity and fumigation against H. indicola. Results revealed that vetiver oil was most toxic killing 60% termites at 25 g/ l while neem and mint oils showed 54% and 56.66% mortality rate, respectively, at the same concentration. When tested for repellency, vetiver oil proved to be the most effective repellent because of its long lasting activity. In a fumigation test, all three oils were tested at concentration of 0.03125%, 0.0625%, 0.125%, 0.25% and 0.5%. Out of the three tested oils, vetiver oil was the most effective. The components of neem, vetiver and mint oil were identified by TLC technique. At the end of the study, it was concluded that vetiver oil is a promising novel termiticide against H. indicola.