Integration of Three Bicontrol Agents For The Control of The Cabbage Worm, Artogeia (Pieris) rapae (L.).

• Badr El-Sabah A. Fetoh and Ahmed M. Azazy
• Plant Protection Research Institute, Dokki, Giza, Egypt.

Abstract

Laboratory and field experiments were conducted to evaluate three biocontrol agents for the control of the cabbage worm, Artogeia (Pieris) rapae as new approaches in Integrated Pest Management (IPM). Under laboratory conditions, larvae and pupae of A. rapae were found highly susceptible to two nematode species; Heterorhabditis bacteriophora (TWF strain) and Steinernema carpocapsae (All strain). Dipel 2X (commercial formulation of Bacillus thuringiensis krustaki) exhibited highly toxic effect against A. rapae larvae (93.3% mortality), while Biofly (commercial formulation of the fungus Beauveria bassiana) was less pathogenic (44.2% mortality) and the nematodes alone gave mortality between 73.3-100 and 53.3-100 % among larvae and pupae. When both nematodes were combined with Dipel 2X, 100 % larval mortality was achieved and when combined with Biofly, mortality ranged between 88.9-95.5% under laboratory conditions. Under field conditions, insect mortality 7 days after application was (83.44, 85.89 %) and (77.7, 79.91 %) for All, TWF, after spraying two times. The combination between the nematodes (All and TWF) and Dipel 2X or Biofly, respectively gave 94.29 and 93.73% for All. The corresponding values for TWF were 94.58 and 87.69 % when combined with the two pathogens, respectively. Dipel 2X and Biofly recorded 88.81 and 40.1% insect mortality when used each alone, respectively.