Lethal effects of CO2 on the greenhouse whitefly and its impact on strawberry fruit quality

Abstract

Abstract Strawberry, Fragaria x ananassa, is one of the important horticultural plants cultivated throughout the world for its peerless flavor and juicy texture. The greenhouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum Westwood (Hem.: Aleyrodidae), is a major pest for many greenhouse crops through the world. Carbon dioxide (CO2) is one of the most limiting factors through photosynthesis process. The application of different levels of CO2 in controlled atmosphere treatments has received attention as one of the means for controlling insect pests in agricultural products. The present study aims to evaluate the lethal effects of CO2 on the greenhouse whitefly, T. vaporariorum and its effects on the quality of the strawberry cultivars including Kurdistan, Queen Elizabeth, Camarosa, Selva, and Homigento during the exposure periods of 24 and 48 hr . The research findings reveled that LC50 of CO2 on T. vaporariorum feeding on five cultivars were measured at 742.37, 733.05, 742.74, 746.57, and 741.24 ppm, respectively. The highest and the lowest LC90 of carbon dioxide were 914.02 ppm (Queen Elizabeth) and 980.16 ppm (Kurdistan). Moreover, after 24 and 48 h of being exposed to CO2, no significant difference was observed between control treatment and CO2 concentrations on the qualitative traits of tested cultivars.