Background The red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), is a serious pest of stored grain commodities worldwide which results in considerable losses to stored wheat, Triticum aestivum (Linn.). Main body The present laboratory bioassay was carried out to examine the efficiency of the fungus, Beauveria bassiana (Bals.) formulation (Racer TM), and Neem extract (NE), Eucalyptus extract (EE), and Tobacco extract (TE) against 3rd instar larvae of T. castaneum. The fungal formulation was applied at 0.3 × 108, 0.6 × 108, and 0.9 × 108 conidia kg−1 of the crushed wheat grains; as well, it was mixed separately with 5% concentrations of each plant extract under the laboratory conditions of 30 ± 2 °C and 65 ± 5% RH. Mortality rate of the tested larvae was enumerated after regular intervals of times. Mortality of the larvae increased at the highest combined concentrations of the fungal conidial formulation and the plant extracts rather than their single treatments. The highest mortality rate of the larvae (71.32%) was recorded at the highest concentration binary mixture of (Racer TM +NE), whereas relatively the lowest mortality rate (15.54%) was enumerated in the combined treatments of (Racer TM +NE). Furthermore, the highest separate concentration of B. bassiana (0.9 × 108 conidia/ml) persistently resulted in more larval mortality (32.68%) of 3rd instar larvae of T. castaneum than the plant extracts (7.52, 9.89, and 14.61%), respectively. A noticeably greater rate of mycosis and sporulation was counted in the larvae of the insect in separate treatments of B. bassiana than in its combined applications with the plant extracts. The highest mycosis (85.13%) and sporulation (160.12 conidia/ml) was detected in the treatment, where the lowest concentration of B. bassiana (0.3 × 108 conidia/ml) was used, alone. Conclusion Hence, it was concluded that integrated use of these two bio-pesticides plus the fungus can be helpful in the integrated pest management program of T. castaneum.

Five different weed plants viz. Convulvulus arvensis, Chenopodium murale, Tribulus terrestris, Trianthema portulacastrum, and Achyranthes aspera were investigated for their entomocidal and genotoxic effects against Culex quinquefasciatus mosquitoes. High mortality was observed at 72 hours in a dose dependent manner. Among all the tested plants, A. aspera was found highly significant which showed 100% mortality at 250 ppm after 72 hours with LC 50 of 87.46, 39.08 and 9.22 ppm at 24, 48, respectively. in combination with Bacillus thuringiensis israelensis (Bti); A. aspera also caused 100% mortality at 250 ppm concentration after 72 hours (LC 50 8.29 ppm). Phytochemical analysis of all the tested weed plants showed the presence of flavonoids, saponins, tannins, steroids, cardiac glycosides, alkaloids, anthrequinones and terpenoids. Random Amplification of Polymorphic DNA-Polymerase chain reaction (RAPD-PCR) and comet assay were performed to assess the genotoxic effect of A. aspera but no change in DNA profile was observed. Furthermore, FTIR showed the presence of phenolic compounds in A. aspera extract. It is suggested that certain phenolic compounds such as flavonoids modulate the enzymatic activity and, hence, cause the death of larvae of Cx. quinquefasciatus. Altogether, current study would serve as an initial step towards replacement of synthetic insecticides to plant-microbe based biopesticide against Culex mosquitoes in future.Mosquitoes are reported to cause nuisance to humans and transmit several viral and protozoan diseases of public health concern worldwide. These are female mosquitoes which make a bite during their search for blood meal before oviposition which thus, increases their tendency to transmit several diseases including malaria, filariasis, dengue fever, japanese encephalitis, chikungunya, zika virus and yellow fever. These diseases make life at risk of millions of people particularly in subtropical/tropical world 1,2 . Of various mosquito species, Cx. quinquefasciatus transmits various diseases i.e., West Nile virus, Japanese encephalitis, filariasis, bancroftian filariasis (Wuchereria bancrofti), St. Louis encephalitis, and avian malaria 3 . In southern United States, St. Louis virus and West Nile virus (WNV) were transmitted by Cx. quinquefasciatus 4,5 . Almost 120 million people are affected annually only by lymphatic filariasis, whereas 1.3 billion are at risk resulting in nearly $1.3 billion loss of productivity per year 6 . Similarly, three billion individuals are at risk of being infected by Japanese encephalitis with 30,000-50,000 reported cases every year in disease endemic areas 7 . Besides disease transmission in humans; Cx. quinquefasciatus is also responsible for transmitting several diseases to livestock and companion animals viz. Rift Valley fever, canine dirofilariasis (dog heartworm), avian malaria, avian pox, and West Nile encephalitis which lead to high mortalities or decreased productivity 8 . open Scientific RepoRtS | (2020) 10:6826 | https://doi.org/10.1038/s41598-020-6381...

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Wheat [Triticum aestivum L. (Poaceae)] is the staple diet of people in Pakistan. It is attacked by many types of pests. Therefore the purpose of this study was to assess the impact of climate change on the ecology and epidemiology of various wheat pests in Punjab, Pakistan. Results indicate that maximum weeds hot spots 242 (5.98%) Phalaris minor, 45 (1.18%) wild oat and 203(5.01%) broad leaf weeds were noted in 2015. Aphid 31 (0.86%) hot spots were recorded in 2016 while maximum army worm 13 (0.26%) hot spots were noted in 2017. Maximum 70 (1.73%) spots of yellow rust and 85 (2.10%) hot spots of brown rust were observed during 2015 while 84 (4.16%) spots of loose smut were observed during 2017. ANOVA shows that years have no significant difference (P > 0.05) but weeks have significant effect on occurrence of these pest incidences except brown rust. But regression ANOVA was significant (P ≤ 0.05) and regression models equations have been developed on the bases of recorded data. Pest incidence was taken as dependent variable Y and weather factors i.e. minimum temperature as X 1 , maximum temperature as X 2 , relative humidity as X 3 and rain fall as X 4 were taken as independent variables. This study will help in recommendations for moving forward aiming at integration of biology of rust and smut diseases of wheat with changing climate for development of resistant varieties for resilient and durable management of these pathogens.