Development of an attract‐and‐infect system to control Rhynchophorus ferrugineus with the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana

Abstract

Based on the results obtained in terms of the efficacy and persistence of this new AID in the field and its potential in reducing R. ferrugineus populations and palm infestation, this device could become a key tool for the management of R. ferrugineus. © 2018 Society of Chemical Industry.

Integration of Entomopathogenic Fungi into IPM Programs: Studies Involving Weevils (Coleoptera: Curculionoidea) Affecting Horticultural Crops

“…Combinations of EPF with attractants such as a methanol/ethanol mixture, aggregation pheromones or sex pheromones were tested against C. sordidus [ 173 , 174 , 175 ], C. formicarius [ 176 ], H. hampei [ 115 ] and R. ferrugineus [ 127 , 177 , 178 , 179 , 180 ]. The term “sex pheromone” is commonly defined as the chemical signals from a female to attract males of the same species for initiation of courtship or mating, whereas an “aggregation pheromone” is a male-produced attractant which draws both sexes of the same species to a calling site to increase mating likelihood [ 181 ].…”

“…The aims of these studies were to infect adult weevils with EPF by integrating the EPF with attractants as an “attract-and-infect” technique. They showed that the integration of B. bassiana with an aggregation pheromone component (ferrugineol or 4-methyl-5-nonanol) in the infective trap could cause high mortality to R. ferrugineus adults in the laboratory, but only low to moderate mortality was observed in the field [ 127 , 177 , 178 , 179 , 180 ]. Despite this apparent limitation, studies have found that the combination of B. bassiana with ferrugineol as part of an attract-and-infect strategy reduced infestations of R. ferrugineus [ 178 , 179 ] more effectively than the application of the insecticide chlorpyrifos alone, or the combination of chlorpyrifos with ferrugineol in an attract-and-kill system [ 178 ].…”

“…They showed that the integration of B. bassiana with an aggregation pheromone component (ferrugineol or 4-methyl-5-nonanol) in the infective trap could cause high mortality to R. ferrugineus adults in the laboratory, but only low to moderate mortality was observed in the field [ 127 , 177 , 178 , 179 , 180 ]. Despite this apparent limitation, studies have found that the combination of B. bassiana with ferrugineol as part of an attract-and-infect strategy reduced infestations of R. ferrugineus [ 178 , 179 ] more effectively than the application of the insecticide chlorpyrifos alone, or the combination of chlorpyrifos with ferrugineol in an attract-and-kill system [ 178 ]. Moderate to high mortality of C. sordidus adults was also observed in the laboratory when B. bassiana was combined with an aggregation pheromone (Cosmolure ® —sordidin or (1 S ,3 R ,5 R ,7 S )-1-ethyl-3,5,7-trimethyl-2,8-dioxabicyclo [3.2.1] octane) [ 174 ], but again only low to moderate mortality was obtained in the field [ 173 , 175 ].…”

“…The same issues with inappropriate timing in relation to the emergence period of the adults were also raised by Sewify et al [ 184 ] and Vacas et al [ 185 ] in their studies on R. ferrugineus. Dembilio et al [ 179 ] reported that conidia viability inside the trap significantly reduced over time, from 100% on day 1 to less than 50% at day 67, and, as a consequence, only low to moderate mortality was observed in the field. From these studies, it is obvious that to be effective combinations of EPF with attractants designed to enhance infection rates must be used when adult weevil activity is high, and utilise reliable attractants with good persistence in the field.…”

“…An advantage of the attract-and-infect technique with EPF is the ability to generate local transmission between adults in the first cycle [ 127 , 173 , 179 ] and to some extent between adults and conidiated cadavers in the second cycle. The mortality of the “recipients” was around 16% for C. sordidus and 45% for R. ferrugineus when adults that had previously visited traps and served as “donors” had physical contact with them [ 127 , 173 , 179 ]. Studies showed that copulation is the main basis for disease transmission between adults via physical contact.…”