(A).

BACKGROUND OF THE STUDY

Nowadays, people are engaged to many household problems because of the presence of pests
in different homes. Several pests are disease carriers that might make you acquire illnesses
that can be fatal if they are around you, also some pests are capable of severely damaging a
person's home through infestations. Mosquitoes for example, carry diseases such as dengue
fever, zika virus, malaria, encephalitis and chikungunya (Breda Pest Management, 2016).
Termites are another example as they are invasive pets that cause several damage to homes
across the country. Aside from causing problems in households, pests have always been a
huge problem for farmers. This is due to plant pests and pathogens damaging and interfering
with the growth of cultivated naturally growing plants resulting in the failure of plants to
reach their genetic potential. The United States Environmental Protection Agency (US EPA,
2022) noted that one way to control various pests and disease carriers such as mosquitoes,
ticks, rats and mice is through the use of pesticides. Pesticides are also used in agriculture to
control weeds, insect infestation and diseases. According to Alaba et al. (2019) one method to
help minimize the use of synthetic products is the use of plants as an alternative to pesticides.
Tubli (Derris Elliptica) is a poisonous vine that has branches covered with brown hairs. As
described by a study done by Alaba et al. (2019) tubli's leaves are pinnate and 30 to 50
centimeters long, leaflets are usually oblong, 9 to 13, when matured smooth above and silky
beneath, 10 to 15 centimeters long and about half as broad. Pods are 5 to 8 centimeters long
and contain 1 to 3 seeds, flat and reinform, olive brown or black. Tubli's roots contain
rotenone, a slow acting poison which is highly toxic to pests and insects and relatively non
toxic to plants and animals. Rotenone is degraded when exposed and has life of only one to
three days, thus posing a very low environmental hazard. This is known to be used as fish
poison, as traditionally done here in Philippines, but this is not legal beacause it kills the big
fishes and their offspring. Tubli is poison to cold blooded creatures like insects, pest and
marine organisms (Alaba et al., 2019). The study done by Alaba et al. (2019) utilized both
tubli extract and lemongrass oil in creating a pesticide meanwhile this study focuses solely on
using tubli extract. The use of pesticides appears to be high in demand as pesticides market is
forecast to reach 70.89 billion dollars by 2025, after growing in a CAGR of 3.67% during
2020-2025 (IndustryArc, 2020). Because of pesticides being highly sought after by farmers
and even normal citizens, there have been a huge amount of alternatives to pesticides that
have been discovered, one of them is the use of plants which is what the researchers of this
study chose to do. The researchers selected tubli because as mentioned before, it's roots
contain rotenone and also because it is commonly used in various provinces here in the
Philippines. In addition, the use of a botanical pesticide like tubli plant crude extracts is one
of the practical methods for those farmers who are not able to incur expensive commercial
pesticides. This contributes to the sustainability of agriculture because it has no adverse
effects on the environment ( Biñas, 2021). It is from these findings that the researchers have
set their grounds that through tubli extract, they are able to make a botanical pesticide that is
less costly than commercialized pesticides. This study was carried out to determine the
reaction of pests to the extracts of tubli (Derris Elliptica) through the process of spraying.