Comparative insecticidal activity of different plant materials from six common plant species against Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

Faheem Ahmad; Naeem Iqbal; Syed Muhammad Zaka; Muhammad Kamran Qureshi; Qamar Saeed; Khalid Ali Khan; Hamed A Ghramh; Mohammad Javed Ansari; Waqar Jaleel; Muhammad Aasim; Marryam Bakhat Awar

doi:10.1016/j.sjbs.2018.02.018

Comparative insecticidal activity of different plant materials from six common plant species against Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

Saudi J Biol Sci. 2019 Nov;26(7):1804-1808. doi: 10.1016/j.sjbs.2018.02.018. Epub 2018 Feb 27.

Authors

Faheem Ahmad¹, Naeem Iqbal², Syed Muhammad Zaka³, Muhammad Kamran Qureshi⁴, Qamar Saeed³, Khalid Ali Khan^{5

6}, Hamed A Ghramh^{5

7

6}, Mohammad Javed Ansari^{8

9}, Waqar Jaleel¹⁰, Muhammad Aasim¹¹, Marryam Bakhat Awar³

Affiliations

¹ Department of Biosciences, COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Islamabad, Pakistan.
² Department of Plant Protection, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences, Ghazi University, Dera Ghazi Khan 32200, Punjab, Pakistan.
³ Department of Entomology, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences and Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan.
⁴ Department of Plant Breeding & Genetics, Faculty of Agricultural Sciences & Technology, Bahauddin Zakariya University, Multan 60800, Pakistan.
⁵ Unit of Bee Research and Honey Production, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61413, P.O. Box 9004, Saudi Arabia.
⁶ Department of Biology, Faculty of Science, King Khalid University, Abha 61413, P.O. Box 9004, Saudi Arabia.
⁷ Research Center for Advanced Materials Science (RCAMS), King Khalid University, Abha 61413, P.O. Box 9004, Saudi Arabia.
⁸ Bee Research Chair, Plant Protection Department, College of Food and Agriculture Sciences, King Saud University, PO Box 2460, Riyadh 11451, Saudi Arabia.
⁹ Department of Botany, Hindu College Moradabad, 244001, India.
¹⁰ College of Agriculture, South China Agricultural University, Guangzhou 510642, Guangdong Province, China.
¹¹ Department of Biotechnology, Faculty of Science, Necmettin Erbakan University, Konya, Turkey.

Abstract

Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) is one of the major insect pests of stored grains. Due to export legislation and zero-tolerance for live insect in trade commodities, extensive use of synthetic insecticides is in practice in order to eliminate pest infestations from the lots. Currently, the one and only acceptable chemical to be used in stored grain is phosphine but due to its excessive usage the stored grain pests are becoming resistant against it. Hence discovery of alternative compounds is much needed. In this study we have compared insecticidal efficacy of different plant materials from six commonly grown plants of Pakistan, viz. Allium sativum (Alliaceae), Zingiber officinale (Zingiberaceae), Cymbopogon citratus (Poaceae), Eucalyptus globulus (Myrtaceae), Nicotiana tabacum (Solanaceae), and Azadirachta indica (Meliaceae) against T. castaneum infesting stored wheat, rice, corn and gram pulse. Various plant parts were dried, powdered, and used as admixtures to the stored commodities in the experiments. The results have suggested that A. sativum (garlic) and Z. officinale (ginger) were more effective resulting into 15 times higher adult mortality and 4 to 5 times reduction in grain weight losses when mixed with rice grains. Similarly, A. indica when admixture with wheat checked the population growth in the resources resulting into 3.5 times less adult production compared to controls. A subsequent experiment was conducted to study the dose response of neem seed powder against the beetle pest infesting milled products. Surprisingly, better control was observed either at lowest (1% w/w) or the highest doses (5% w/w). This finding is of great interest to understand the underlying phenomenon which we assume is the ability of T. castaneum to feed selectively in flour mediums, however, further research on this aspect is required to be investigated. The results of this study support the use of botanicals for stored product pest management.

Keywords: Eucalyptus; Garlic; Ginger; Insecticidal activity; Lemongrass; Neem; Tobacco; Tribolium castaneum.