Efficiency of Three Insecticides Against the Fig Borer Hypothenemus Eruditus Westwood on Fig, Ficus Carica at Dar El-Ramad, Fayoum (original) (raw)

2017, Fayoum Journal of Agricultural Research and Development

The experimentation was carried out during two successive seasons, (2015 and 2016) on mature Fig trees farm, at Dar-Ramad, Fayoum Governorate. Three chemicals, Diazenox 60%, Cidial L 50 % and Renoban 48%, were tested against the bark beetle Hypothenemus eruditus (Westwood) on Fig trees. Three concentrations of each 1.5, 3.0 and 4.5cm 3 /1-liter water were used in addition to water alone as untreated control (untreated cuts). Counting entrance and exit holes, cidial L 50 was the most effective insecticide where no holes were observed in the treated cuts at all concentrations, in both seasons with Renoban, the number of entrance holes was low with no exit holes in the 1 st season and 5.7 holes/cut on cuts treated with 4.5cm/liter in the 2 nd season. Diazenox was the least efficient where, after two months of exposure, there was no difference in infestation (14.2 holes/cut) between those treated with 1.5% conc. and the untreated. Results in both season were similar. INTRODUCTION Bark beetles (Coleoptera: Curculionidae: Scolytinae) are a major faunal element in most forest ecosystems around the world. They are small beetles, generally 1-3 mm long, which can bore into most woody tissue and reproduce in galleries under bark or inside the seed pods of their hosts. Their feeding can disrupt sap flow causing branch or tree death and some species are known vectors of fungi, which cause serious tree diseases such as Dutch elm disease. Bark beetle species are living on dying and decaying trees, but those species that invade healthy living tissue also can become a management issue for the production systems they infest. The beetles can destroy timber and render agricultural produce unmarketable and are therefore a major quarantine concern. Indeed, scolytines are commonly intercepted by quarantine authorities, both in wood packing materials, where they comprise 93% of all insects intercepted in the USA (Haack, 2001), and in food products such as nuts. Species, Hypothenemus eruditus Westwood, widely distributed over the tropical and subtropical regions of the world, is also common in the Mediterranean countries, H. eruditus is similarly found in the husk material and less commonly inside the kernel some activity has been observed within the macadamia nut shell (Huwer and Maddox,