Toxicity of Some Selected Pesticides against Neoseiulus barkeri (Acari: Phytoseiidae) Under Laboratory Conditions
Toxicity of Some Selected Pesticides against Neoseiulus barkeri (Acari: Phytoseiidae) Under Laboratory Conditions
Muhammad Zahid1, Muhammad Hamid Bashir1*, Bilal Saeed Khan1 and Muhammad Shahid2
ABSTRACT
Insect pests are the major yield decreasing factors in our agro-ecosystem. Among many pest management approaches, biological control is considered as the main strategy to address these issues including sucking pests. Different biocontrol agents are being used for the management of these sucking insect pests. Neoseiulus barkeri (Acari: Phytoseiidae) has been proved as an efficient acarine predator of sucking insect pests of different crops. This predator has also been reported from different localities of Pakistan. The main objective of this study was to screen out locally used pesticides i.e., pyriproxyfen, acetamiprid, chlorfenapyr, diafenthiuron and thiacloprid against N. barkeri in order to find its compatibility with some pesticides. Leaf disc arenas were used and leaf dip bioassay was conducted. Pesticides were tested for their compatibility with N. barkeri at different concentrations under controlled laboratory conditions. The results showed 25%, 30%, 70%, 50% and 65% mortality occurred by tested pesticides at field relevant doses after 144 h respectively. Missing mites data indicated repellency due to pesticides, was highest at the start of experiment, and then these acclimatized on leaf discs. Thiacloprid having lowest LC50 value 295 and proved toxic for the predator while diafenthiuron and pyriproxyfen have higher values. The findings of the study revealed that among five tested pesticides chlorfenapyr and thiacloprid proved moderately harmful for N.barkeri, hence cannot be recommended in IPM module.
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