Postharvest Treatment of Tribolium confusum Jacquelin du Val Adults with Commercial Biopesticides

Abstract

Within the context of the harmful side-effects of chemical pest control applications, the present study investigated the insecticidal effect of three commercial biopesticides, the fungal Metab (Beauveria bassiana, Metarhizium anisopliae) and Lecan (Lecanicillium lecanii), as well as raw zeolite, against Tribolium confusum Jacquelin du Val (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae), also known as the confused flour beetle. To this end, we sprayed Tribolium confusum adults with suspensions of the said biopesticides, at three different dosages (250 ppm, 500 ppm, and 1000 ppm) on Avena sativa L. and Linum usitatissimum L. hull and no hull seeds. The data were analyzed in terms of three- and four-way ANOVA model, and the overall survival was determined while using the Kaplan–Meier method. The mortality of Tribolium confusum adults was recorded and analyzed in correlation with the following parameters: dose, product (seed), days, and treatment as factors. At the end of the experiment, all of the biopesticides were effectively pathogenic, but there was variation in their effectiveness in terms of the T. confusum mortality that they caused, depending on the product (seed). The type of seed can play a role in the pathogenicity or effectiveness of the biopesticides. Additionally, our results showed that the mortality percentage was dependent on the dose and treatment of the commercial biopesticides.