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Journal of Entomology

Year: 2014 | Volume: 11 | Issue: 5 | Page No.: 283-290
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Authors

Andi Nasruddin

Ahwiyah Eka Said

Muhammad Said Baco

Jumardi

Keywords

Research Article

Efficacy of Selected Insecticides and Application Methods in Controlling Aleurodicus dispersus (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae) on Pepper Plants

Andi Nasruddin, Ahwiyah Eka Said, Muhammad Said Baco and Jumardi
Spiraling whitefly, Aleurodicus dispersus Russell (Homoptera: Aleyrodidae), was detected for the first time causing serious damages on pepper in South Sulawesi Province of Indonesia in 2012. Farmers rely mainly on insecticide for its control however, this effort apparently failed to provide satisfactory control. The failure probably stemmed from inappropriate insecticide choice and application method. Thus, the purpose of the current study was to evaluate the efficacy of commercially available insecticides and application methods on suppressing the whitefly. Ten formulated insecticides with different active ingredients were evaluated in a field trial against the adult and nymphal whitefly. The same insecticides were also tried to determine their efficacy against the adult populations in a leaf-dip bioassay in the laboratory. Another field trial was conducted to compare the effectiveness of two different application methods; partial coverage spray practiced by farmers and full coverage spray. Fipronil, lambda-cyhalothrin, fenobucarb and imidacloprid consistently had the lowest numbers of adults during the trial. While, pipronil, lambda-cyhalothrin and imidacloprid had the least numbers of nymphs. Overall, however, all insecticides were highly effective in suppressing the whitefly populations with reduction levels ranging from 85.7% (cypermethrin) to 99.3% (imidacloprid) for the nymph and 87.8% (cypermethrin) to 99.7% (imidacloprid) for the adult. Laboratory bioassay results showed that all insecticides effectively controlled the adult whitefly with mortality rates from 80-100% 24 h and 100% 48 h after the insecticide application. The results of the field trial comparing two application methods showed that the partial spray coverage (farmers’ method) failed to lower the whitefly population, while the full spray coverage method successfully suppressed the pest population. Therefore, the ineffectiveness of insecticides use so far was probably due to the inappropriate choices of insecticides and application method by the farmers.
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