Background The bio-pesticide abamectin has been used to control a large variety of insects, including Diptera species, attributed to its high toxicity with virtually no residual effects on treated crops. Its low residual effect ensures the survival of natural enemies and other non-target organisms. Imidacloprid is also widely used for insect pest control due to its potency and high insect selectivity in comparison to mammals. On the other hand, diazinon has been applied extensively to control immature fruit fly stages, mature larvae, pre-pupae, and pupae in soil drench application, thus, affecting the whole agroecosystem, including the natural enemies. Results The toxic effects of abamectin and imidaclopride proposed as a replacement for diazinone in soil treatment, were studied against a laboratory strain of the peach fruit fly (PFF), Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) (Diptera: Tephritidae) under field-caged conditions. Five days old PFF pupae were treated by each pesticide. PFF pupae exhibited different levels of susceptibility to the tested pesticides. Non-significant differences in the pupal mortality rates were obtained between imidacloprid (77.52%), abamectin (77.22%), or diazinon (73.89%). Diazinon and abamectin achieved the highest percentages of total mortality (100%), followed by imidacloprid (98.89%). Real mortality rates were mostly concentration-dependent, while the deformed flies rate depended on the chemical sub-group of insecticide and concentration. Additionally, the biochemical studies revealed different acetylcholinesterase enzyme (AChE) inhibition levels caused by the pesticides on the treated flies sampled at 24, 48, and 72 hours post fly emergence. Conclusion The bio-insecticide abamectin is an option to diazinon for the control of PFF pupae. Also, soil treatment might be an alternative for PFF pupae control.
Background The peach fruit fly, Bactrocera zonata (Saunders) (Diptera: Tephritidae), is a key pest of fruits in Egypt. Insect-pathogenic fungi are one of the biocontrol agents that increasingly substitute the traditional pesticides to overcome pesticide risks. Therefore, the present study aims to assess the fungal virulence of Beauveria bassiana (Balsamo) and Metarhizium anisopliae (Metchnikoff) against B. zonata pupae. Also, extended pathogenicity effect of these fungi on adult flies was studied. Results The results showed that M. anisopliae fungus had more pathogenicity to B. zonata pupae on the 2nd, 3rd, and 5th days post-treatment than B. bassiana. Pathogenicity fungal effects of treated larvae extended to the surviving adults. Fungal concentration and post-exposure interval reversely impacted the pupae by 63.88 and 63.59% mortality in the case of M. anisopliae and B. bassiana, respectively. The lethal concentration of treated fly by M. anisopliae (LC50 = 9.5 × 106 conidia/ml and LC90 = 9.9 × 107 conidia/ml) was lower than that of B. bassiana (LC50 = 5.1 × 107 conidia/ml and LC90 = 1.9 × 109 conidia/ml). Median lethal time (LT50) value was fungal species-dependent, and concentration. Metarhizium anisopliae was more virulent than B. bassiana; the lowest LT50 value was 9.48 days by M. anisopliae and 13.33 days by B. bassiana, depending on the fungal tested concentration of 2.3 × 106 conidia/ml. Conclusions The tested entomopathogenic fungi could be considered promising biocontrol agents against B. zonata and could be used for fly suppression through soil application in IPM programs.
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