Pest Management Science (2009) 65, 105-112

Marie Joy Schulte, Konrad Martin, Andreas Büchse and Joachim Sauerborn (2009)
Entomopathogens (Beauveria bassiana and Steinernema carpocapsae) for biological control of bark-feeding moth Indarbela dea on field-infested litchi trees
Pest Management Science 65 (1), 105-112
Abstract: BACKGROUND: The bark-feeding moth Indarbela dea (Swinhoe) is one of the major pests of litchi (Litchi chinensis Sonn.) in Asia. Effects on larval mortality and web production were tested by repeated, single and combined tree trunk applications of the entomopathogenic fungus Beauveria bassiana (Bals.) Vuill. and the entomopathogenic nematode Steinernema carpocapsae (Weiser). Two separate application trials were conducted in different seasons on young and older larvae respectively.
RESULTS: In both trials, complete or nearly complete mortality (100% and 95%) of the larvae was achieved 3 weeks after application of S. carpocapsae alone and 2 weeks after the combined application of B. bassiana and S. carpocapsae (100% in both trials). However, in the combined application, all larvae were killed by one treatment, while the application of S. carpocapsae alone needed to be repeated to reach the same result. The effectiveness of the combined entomopathogen application and of the application of S. carpocapsae alone was not influenced by the age of the larvae. However, the single applications of B. bassiana were only effective on young larvae. In both trials, web production of surviving larvae was very significantly reduced by the application of S. carpocapsae in single and combined treatments.
CONCLUSIONS: As the results show, only one application is necessary in the combined application of the two entomopathogens to control I. dea, which implies that such treatment is probably the economically most relevant solution.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Joachim Sauerborn

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
evaluation - screening - selection

---

Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Indarbela dea	Lychee/litchi (Litchi chinensis)
Steinernema carpocapsae/Xenorhabdus nematophila (entomopathogen)	Indarbela dea	Lychee/litchi (Litchi chinensis)
Beauveria bassiana (antagonist)	Indarbela dea	Lychee/litchi (Litchi chinensis)