Abstract:
Objective Beauveria bassiana is widely used to control agricultural and forestry pests, but the slower and unstable efficacy limit its large-scale application. Pyrethrins is a natural botanical insecticide, and commonly used for pest control in organic agriculture, but it is expensive and has a short persistence period. This study was aimed to mix B. bassiana and pyrethrins together, develop effective and low-cost mixed combinations and appropriate preparations.
Method Under indoor conditions, the bioactivities of conidia of
B. bassiana BbPs01 strain, natural pyrethrins and their mixtures against cotton aphid (
Aphis gossypii) were tested by spray method. To screen the synergistic combinations of BbPs01 and pyrethrins, the joint virulence of mixtures was evaluated with cotoxicity factor. The 1.0% (
\varphi 
) dispersible oil suspension of
B. bassiana·pyrethrins (1.0% BbPy OD) was prepared and applied in lab to investigate the control efficacy against
A. gossypii, as well as in fields to investigate the control efficacy against
A. gossypii on cucumber,
Bemisia tabaci on tomato and
Phyllotreta striolata on Chinese flowering cabbage.
Result The results from toxicity tests in lab showed that on day 3 after treatment, the mixture of BbPs01 and pyrethrins in the mass ratios of 0.8∶0.2, 1.8∶0.2, 0.7∶0.3, 0.6∶0.4, 0.5∶0.5 showed synergistic effect against A. gossypii. The combination of B. bassiana and pyrethrins in mass ratio of 0.7∶0.3 had the highest cotoxicity factor, and was selected to prepare 1.0% BbPy OD. The lab activity test results showed that the LC50 of 1.0% BbPy OD against A. gossypii was 1.98 mg/L, which was lower than the positive control, LC50 of 1.5% (φ) pyrethrins emulsion in water (1.5% Py Ew) was 5.05 mg/L. In field trials, it was found that 1.0% BbPy OD had good efficacies to control A. gossypii on cucumber, B. tabaci on tomato and P. striolata on Chinese flowering cabbage.
Conclusion B. bassiana and pyrethrins has synergistic effect on aphids, and their binary mixed dispersible oil suspension shows good control effect on aphids and other pests. This study provides a new insight for expanding the application technology of myco- and botanical insecticides.