Evaluation of Botanical Oils against Red Flour Beetle Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) Coleoptera: Tenebionidae Alsudani Ali Abdulridha*, Ismail Waref M.H., Al-Karhi Mytham A.J.1, Abbas Manar Ahmed 1Department of Plant Protection, Field Crops DepartmentCollege of Agriculture University of Kerbala, Kerbala, Iraq *E-mail:ali.alsudani@uokerbala.edu.iq
Online published on 9 March, 2021. Abstract Among botanical extracts used as insecticides, essential oils are promising alternatives to chemical insecticides. In this study, essential oils of Eucalyptus sp, Syzygium aromaticum, Cinnamomum verum, Sinapis alba and Lepidium sativum were investigated for their insecticidal activity against one of the most destructive insect pest on stored material, the red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum. The fumigation with Eucalyptus and C. verum oils mixed methyl alcohol resulted in high mortality rates that of 60.67 and 63.33%, respectively, compared to significantly less mortality from the using the same oils alone. Findings also showed that Eucalyptus and C. verum showed more repellency than other oils with repellence rate of 46.66 and 33.33%, respectively 12h post treatment while all the oils resulted in 100% repellence after 36h of the treatment. In case of contact toxicity test, Eucalyptus and C. verum were also the most effective oils at 1h post treatment resulting in mortality rate of 20 and 10%, respectively, and 100% mortality 6h post treatment, while the other plant oils were effective even 24h post treatment. Top Keywords Tribolium castaneum, Red flour beetle, Botanical oils, Repellence, Wheat, Stored grains. Top |