Affiliation(s)
1. Integrated Pest Control Research Center, Directorate of Agricultural Research, Ministry of Science & Technology, Baghdad 00964, Iraq
2. Directorate of Baghdad Agriculture, Ministry of Agriculture, Baghdad 00964, Iraq
ABSTRACT
Cultural practices, hand
collection of larvae, light traps and entomopathogenic fungi were investigated
to manage of palm borers Oryctes spp.
in date palm orchards during the years 2010-2015. Cultural practices, such as sanitation and pruning frond bases, hand
collection of larvae during regular annual service work and light traps with
solar energy were practiced annually in one orchard for five years. In
the second orchard, cultural practices were applied for two years, light trap
for one year only, and no hand collection of larvae was done during the period. The third orchard was used as a control treatment. Results showed reduction in
population density of larvae (91.6% and 53.0%) and adult (76.1% and 41.1%) of Oryects spp. in the 1st and 2nd orchard, respectively. The
results also demonstrated the impact of moon light phases on the number of Oryctes spp. adults caught by light
trap and the existence of an inverse relation between moon light and flight
activity of adults. Biological experiments also
revealed that entomopathogenic fungi can cause high mortality rate reaching 100%
after 29 d. Beauveria bassiana scored higher mortality rate in short
time, especially at
concentration of 1 × 1011 conidia/mL
with LT50 = 12.75 and LT90 =
20; while, Metarhizium anisopliae caused the
higher percentage of malformed adults. The
results depicted the effectiveness of some integrated ecological sound control
methods for monitoring and population suppression of Oryects spp. in
date palm orchards.
KEYWORDS
Integrated pest management,
cultural practices, hand collection of larvae, light traps, moon light, entomopathogenic
fungi, Oryects spp..
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