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Insecticidal Activity of Plant Powders against the Parasitoid, Pteromalus venustus, and Its Host, the Alfalfa Leafcutting Bee

Developing a bee-friendly alternative to traditional insecticides used within commercial environments can contribute to reductions in pesticide exposure experienced by managed bees. We performed acute contact toxicity studies using fifteen plant powders from seven plant families against a parasitoid...

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Autores principales: Ong, Mikhaela, Chomistek, Nora, Dayment, Hanna, Goerzen, Wayne, Baines, Danica
Formato: Online Artículo Texto
Lenguaje:English
Publicado: MDPI 2020
Materias:
Acceso en línea:https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7348825/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32526909
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects11060359
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author Ong, Mikhaela
Chomistek, Nora
Dayment, Hanna
Goerzen, Wayne
Baines, Danica
author_facet Ong, Mikhaela
Chomistek, Nora
Dayment, Hanna
Goerzen, Wayne
Baines, Danica
author_sort Ong, Mikhaela
collection PubMed
description Developing a bee-friendly alternative to traditional insecticides used within commercial environments can contribute to reductions in pesticide exposure experienced by managed bees. We performed acute contact toxicity studies using fifteen plant powders from seven plant families against a parasitoid pest, Pteromalus venustus, and its host, the Alfalfa leafcutting bee (ALB). Ajwain, cinnamon, clove, cumin, fennel, ginger, nutmeg, oregano and turmeric applied at low contact concentrations had sufficient fumigant properties to cause equivalent or higher parasitoid mortality as that obtained with the traditional insecticide. Nutmeg adversely affected adult ALBs at both low and high contact concentrations, thus eliminating it as a candidate. Increasing the contact concentrations did not consistently increase parasitoid control but did increase adverse effects on the ALBs. In addition, the efficacious plant powders significantly reduced the sexual function and fertility of the female parasitoids, a feature not associated with the traditional insecticide. The dual nature of the mechanisms underlying the effects of the plant powders may translate into effective control of the parasitoid populations in the commercial environment. The results reported here support further evaluations of Ajwain, cinnamon, clove, cumin, fennel, ginger, oregano and turmeric as potential botanical insecticides for control of P. venustus.
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spelling pubmed-73488252020-07-22 Insecticidal Activity of Plant Powders against the Parasitoid, Pteromalus venustus, and Its Host, the Alfalfa Leafcutting Bee Ong, Mikhaela Chomistek, Nora Dayment, Hanna Goerzen, Wayne Baines, Danica Insects Article Developing a bee-friendly alternative to traditional insecticides used within commercial environments can contribute to reductions in pesticide exposure experienced by managed bees. We performed acute contact toxicity studies using fifteen plant powders from seven plant families against a parasitoid pest, Pteromalus venustus, and its host, the Alfalfa leafcutting bee (ALB). Ajwain, cinnamon, clove, cumin, fennel, ginger, nutmeg, oregano and turmeric applied at low contact concentrations had sufficient fumigant properties to cause equivalent or higher parasitoid mortality as that obtained with the traditional insecticide. Nutmeg adversely affected adult ALBs at both low and high contact concentrations, thus eliminating it as a candidate. Increasing the contact concentrations did not consistently increase parasitoid control but did increase adverse effects on the ALBs. In addition, the efficacious plant powders significantly reduced the sexual function and fertility of the female parasitoids, a feature not associated with the traditional insecticide. The dual nature of the mechanisms underlying the effects of the plant powders may translate into effective control of the parasitoid populations in the commercial environment. The results reported here support further evaluations of Ajwain, cinnamon, clove, cumin, fennel, ginger, oregano and turmeric as potential botanical insecticides for control of P. venustus. MDPI 2020-06-09 /pmc/articles/PMC7348825/ /pubmed/32526909 http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects11060359 Text en © 2020 by the authors. Licensee MDPI, Basel, Switzerland. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
spellingShingle Article
Ong, Mikhaela
Chomistek, Nora
Dayment, Hanna
Goerzen, Wayne
Baines, Danica
Insecticidal Activity of Plant Powders against the Parasitoid, Pteromalus venustus, and Its Host, the Alfalfa Leafcutting Bee
title Insecticidal Activity of Plant Powders against the Parasitoid, Pteromalus venustus, and Its Host, the Alfalfa Leafcutting Bee
title_full Insecticidal Activity of Plant Powders against the Parasitoid, Pteromalus venustus, and Its Host, the Alfalfa Leafcutting Bee
title_fullStr Insecticidal Activity of Plant Powders against the Parasitoid, Pteromalus venustus, and Its Host, the Alfalfa Leafcutting Bee
title_full_unstemmed Insecticidal Activity of Plant Powders against the Parasitoid, Pteromalus venustus, and Its Host, the Alfalfa Leafcutting Bee
title_short Insecticidal Activity of Plant Powders against the Parasitoid, Pteromalus venustus, and Its Host, the Alfalfa Leafcutting Bee
title_sort insecticidal activity of plant powders against the parasitoid, pteromalus venustus, and its host, the alfalfa leafcutting bee
topic Article
url https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC7348825/
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/32526909
http://dx.doi.org/10.3390/insects11060359
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