Bacillus and Serratia species for Scarab control

Abstract

Few microorganisms are commercially available for use against white grubs (larvae of Scarabaeidae). Entomopathogenic bacteria, particularly Bacillus popilliae, have been used the longest for white grub suppression. Other bacteria, namely B. thuringiensis and Serratia spp. offer promise for future control. This papes examines two genera of bacteria (Bacillus and Serratia) from the historical and current perspective. Bacillus popilliae, the firs microbial control agent registered in the United States, has a long history of use in suppressing populations of the Japanese beetle, Popillia japonica. However, lack of in vitro production and the slow and sporadic nature of its activity, severely limits its utilization. B. thuringiensis, the most widely used microbial pesticide, has not been used for scarab, control. However, strains with scarab activity have recently been discovered. Scarab larvae have been collected in the United States with signs and symptoms similar to those characteristic of amber disease (caused by Serratia entomophila) in the New Zealand grass grub, Costelytra zealandica. A total of 147 bacteria have been obtained from the digestive tracts of larvae of the Japanese beetle and masked chafers, Cyclocephala spp., as well as from larvae and soil collected in Japan and China. Seventy five of these have been identified as Serratia spp. Most (40) of the remaining bacteria are in the genus Enterobacter. A majority of the bacteria (73) and of the Serratia (38) came from P. japonica

Isolation and identification of bacteria from Thaumetopoea pityocampa Den. and Schiff. (Lep., Thaumetopoeidae) and determination of their biocontrol potential

“…sphaericus Demir et al 2002;Sezen et al 2007), B. popilliae (Klein and Kaya 1995), B. weihenstephanensis (Sezen et al 2007), B. circulans (Demir et al 2002), B. polymyxa (Demir et al 2002), B. megaterium (Osborn et al 2002) and B. lentimorbus (Yaman et al 1999) have been isolated from different insects. Consequently, Bacillus species are very common in insect populations.…”

The first study on the bacterial flora of the european spruce bark beetle, Dendroctonus micans (Coleoptera: Scolytidae)

“…Apart from B. thuringiensis, some other species of Bacillus genus, such as B. cereus (Steinhaus & Marsh, 1962;Kuzina et al, 2001), B. subtilis (Reeves & Nayduch, 2002), B. sphaericus , B. popilliae (Klein & Kaya, 1995), B. circulans (Demir et al, 2002), B. polymyxa (Demir et al, 2002), B. megaterium (Osborn et al, 2002) and B. lentimorbus (Yaman et al, 1999), have been isolated from different insects showing that Bacillus species are very common in insect populations.…”

“…However, several other species that belong to Serratia have been isolated from various insects, and most of them have been found pathogenic against insects. S. marcescens (Steinhaus & Marsh, 1962;Lipa & Wiland, 1972;Sezen & Demirbag, 1999;Jeyaprakash et al, 2003), S. entomophila (Grimont et al, 1988;Jackson et al, 1992), S. proteamaculans (Grimont et al, 1988), S. liquefaciens (Klein & Kaya, 1995) and S. fonticola (Kuzina et al, 2001) have been isolated from healthy, diseased, or dead insects. In particular, S. marcescens is an important insect pathogen and has been isolated from insectary-rearing insects kept under crowded unnatural conditions (King et al, 1975).…”

Wood production, wood technology, and biotechnological impacts

“…within the beetle's larvae that adopt a white appearance when fully filled with the bacteria (therefore the name milky disease). P. popilliae products are available on the market, but dependence on in vivo growth in larvae collected from the wild limits commercial mass production (Klein & Kaya 1995, Potter & Held 2002.…”