Test of Insecticidal Efficacy of Some Commercial Natural Products against Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae), Bemisia tabaci (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae), and Spodoptera litura (Lepidoptera: Noctuidae)

• Published in: International Journal of Industrial Entomology 2009-06, Vol.18 (2), p.105-112
• Main Authors: Jeong, Hyung-Uk, Kim, Man-Il, Chang, Sung-Kwon, Oh, Hyung-Keun, Kim, Ik-Soo
• Format: Article
• Language: Korean
• Subjects: Bemisia tabaci; Greenhouse whitefly; Insecticidal efficacy; Life cycle; Plant extracts; Spodoptera Litura; Sweet potato whitefly; Tobacco cutworm; Trialeurodes vaporariorum
• ISSN: 1598-3579

The greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum (Westwood) and the sweet potato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci (Gennadius) are serious insect pests that have a wide host range including cucumber, tomato, and pepper. In this study, we tested larvicidal efficacy of several on-the-market environment-friendly agricultural materials (EFAM) to select the effective products after the target pests were stabilized in indoor rearing condition. The developmental periods of two whiteflies are as follows: in the case of T. vaporariorum, egg duration is 9.6 days and nymph is 18.9 days, and in the case of B. tabaci, egg duration is 7.4 days and nymph is 15.2 days under 25℃ with relative humidity (RH) of 60±5% and a photoperiod of 16 L: 8D. The total period of T. vaporariorum was 5 days longer than B. tabaci. Among 22 EFAMs six products showed more than 60% of insecticide efficacy against T. vaporariorum BTV B, BTV D, BTV G, BTV L, BTV M, and BTV S. On the other hand, seven EFAM products showed over 60% of insecticide efficacy against B. tabaci BTV D, BTV G, BTV K, BTV L, BTV M, BTVN, and BTV U. In the case of Spodptera litura previously, 16 EFAMs were tested against 2nd instar S. litura, and six EFAMs were found to have more than 90% efficacy. Test of these six EFAMs against entire larval stages were performed in this study. Although some of these products showed still more than 90% of insecticidal efficacy against up to 3rd instar larvae, the efficacy of these EFAMs sharply decreased as ages increase, resulting in less than 60% of efficacy of the products at most. This result indicates the difficulty to control S. litura with the on-the-market EFAMs alone under economic injury level. Collectively, it is required to find more EFAMs, and find alternative method, and combined way of controlling to control those insect pests tested in this study.