Assessment of toxicidal and repellency activity of extracts from aerial parts of Prunus laurocerasus for controlling broad mite, Polyphagotarsonemus latus

ABSTRACT

Different plant part extracts of cherry laurel [Prunus laurocerasus (Rosaceae)] were investigated for the acaricidal and repellent activity against Polyphagotarsonemus latus (Prostigmata: Tarsonemidae). The leaf, flower, and seed aqueous extracts of cherry laurel were prepared for efficacy bioassays. The tested concentrations of each extract were 1% (volume/volume, v/v), 5% (v/v), 10% (v/v), 20% (v/v) and 30% (weight/volume, w/v). Distilled water and a mixed formulation of 228.6 g/L spiromesifen + 11.4 g/L abamectin   were used as negative and positive controls, respectively. It can be concluded that the flower and leaf extract of P. laurocerasus at 30% concentration and the seed extract at 10% or greater concentrations have the potential to control P. latus in the egg stage. Although spiromesifen+abamectin caused extremely low egg mortality (9.5%), all larvae died shortly after hatching (indirect ovicidal effect). In contrast, all adult mites died within 20 hours after spraying. Moreover, the adult mortalities (92%-98%) associated with seed extract at 30% during the experimental period, and the leaf (93.78%) and flower (91.11%) extract at 30% 72-h after exposure were statistically similar to that of spiromesifen+abamectin (100%) application. All extracts at 20% and seed extract at 10% or greater concentrations may also have a great potential for repelling P. latus.

KEYWORDS:

• Yellow tea mite
• cherry laurel
• aqueous extract
• repellency
• toxicity

Acknowledgments

We gratefully acknowledge Edward A. Ueckermann (North-West University, South Africa) for confirmation of P. latus identifications. Also, we would like to thank the anonymous reviewers for their constructive comments. A part of this research was presented as a poster at the X^th European Congress of Entomology (3–8 August 2014, York, UK) and National Agriculture Congress (26–29 October 2013, Antalya, Turkey) and published as the abstract in the abstract books. This paper is dedicated to the memory of the late Dr. Errol Hassan.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).