Journal of Economic Entomology (2004) 97, 1174-1180

Michael D. Toews and Bhadriraju Subramanyam (2004)
Survival of stored-product insect natural enemies in spinosad-treated wheat
Journal of Economic Entomology 97 (3), 1174-1180
Abstract: The survival of stored product insect natural enemies in wheat treated with spinosad was investigated in laboratory and pilot scale experiments. The predator Xylocoris flavipes (Reuter), the warehouse pirate bug, and the parasitoids Habrobracon hebetor (Say), Theocolax elegans (Westwood), and Anisopteromalus calandrae (Howard) were exposed to wheat treated with aliquots of water or spinosad at 0.05-1 mg ([AI])/kg. X. flavipes was the only species that survived (92% survival) in spinosad-treated wheat at 1 mg/kg. X. flavipes suppressed populations of immature Tribolium castaneum (Herbst), the red flour beetle, by nearly 90% compared with a water-treated control, but 100% suppression of immatures was achieved in wheat receiving spinosad or spinosad + X. flavipes treatments. A 3-mo pilot scale experiment to evaluate T. castaneum suppression in drums holding 163.3 kg of wheat showed that the pest populations increased throughout the study in the control treatment, but peaked after 1 mo in the X. flavipes-treated drums. By comparison, better T. castaneum population suppression was achieved in spinosad or spinosad + X. flavipes treatments. Although X. flavipes can survive and reproduce in spinosad-treated wheat, under our test conditions spinosad alone provided adequate suppression of T. castaneum populations in stored wheat.
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Database assignments for author(s): Michael D. Toews, Bhadriraju Subramanyam

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
control - general
biocontrol - natural enemies
Research topic(s) for beneficials or antagonists:
resistance to pesticides

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Tribolium castaneum	Stored grain
Anisopteromalus calandrae (parasitoid)
Habrobracon hebetor (parasitoid)
Xylocoris flavipes (predator)	Tribolium castaneum	Stored grain
Theocolax elegans (parasitoid)