부산대학교 도서관

Red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) is the major pest of wheat flour with economic importance throughout the world. Due to side effects of pesticides, it is needed to evaluate the alternative strategies to control the stored grain insect pests. For this purpose, toxic and growth inhibition effects of five different plant extracts: Melia azedarach, Pegnum hermala, Salsola baryosma, Azadirachta indica and Zingiber officinale, were evaluated on different life stages of T. castaneum. Series of experiments were conducted under laboratory conditions at 30+2°C and 65+5 % R.H at Grain Research Training and Storage Management Cell of Department of Entomology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad using incubators (Sanyo M.I.R 254) in order to maintain the temperature and humidity. Three different concentrations (5, 10 and 15%) for each of the plant extract were prepared by dissolving in acetone as control treatment. At highest concentration, used during experiments, highest mortality (10.14%) of T. castaneum was recorded with A. indica and minimum mortality (6.08%) was recorded with Z. officinale. Similarly, highest population inhibition was (89.70%) with A. indica but minimum population inhibition (75.15%) was recorded with P. hermala at 15% concentration. The results regarding growth inhibition clearly show that in case of A. indica, lowest numbers of larvae (32.67), pupae (16.33) and adults (11.33) were emerged at 15% concentration, while Z. officinale was least effective with highest emergence rate of larvae (80.33), pupae (75.00) and adult (71.00). The study can be very helpful in future as the plant extracts can be a best replacement of pesticides. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]