Storage Survey of the Date Moth (Ephestia cautella) and Evaluation of the Efficacy of Certain Biological Agents in Limiting its Infestation

• Riham Kareem Alwan

  Author

The results of the survey in selected regions of Babylon Governorate (Al-Musayib, Al-Iskandariyah, Saddat Al-hindiyah, Al-mahawil, and Al-mashrou) indicated that the insect was prevalent particularly in the month of October to December, where the highest infestation levels were recorded in Al-Musayib and Al-mashrou during December.. The laboratory results showed that the different concentrations of the extracts and duration of exposure to alcoholic extracts had a significant effect (P ≤ 0.05) on the larval mortality rates with the alcoholic extracts showing a certain superiority over the aqueous extracts. In particular, the aqueous extract of Dodonaea viscosa seeds had the highest mortality rate of 61.44% and 54.80% against the second and the fourth larval instar respectively at the concentration of 0.75 mg/ml after a period of one week. On the other hand, the lowest rate (8.00% and 5.13% respectively) was recorded in the concentration of 0.25 mg/ml, after 24 hours. In the case of the aqueous extract of Cuminum cyminum, the highest mortality rates were 66.78% and 51.55% at the concentration of 0.75 mg/ml after one week among second and fourth instar, respectively. The lowest mortality rates of these instars were 15.50% and 10.31% with 0.25 mg/ml concentration after 24 hours, respectively. Moreover, the findings on the alcoholic extracts of the D. viscosa and C. cyminum seeds on the life cycle immature stages of the pest revealed that D. viscosa was much more effective than C. cyminum. The alcoholic extract of D. viscosa had the highest mortality rate of 87.30 and 68.54% respectively. In the meantime the C. cyminum extract had mortality rates of 80.00 and 68.54 in stars, respectively. In the experiment with the fungal filtrate of Trichoderma harzianum at the concentration of (10, 5, 2.5 and 0 mg/ml) in the period (1, 3 and 7 days), the experiment showed that the maximum effect was 90.00% of the second instar and 78.15 percent on the fourth instar. The research concludes that the effectiveness of these treatments is proportional to the concentrations and durations of exposure thus making them more effective in pest control. Therefore, alcoholic extracts and biological agents are suggested as promising alternatives to be applied in Integrated Pest Management (IPM) programs and have environmentally-friendly properties.

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