Physiological selectivity and activity reduction of insecticides by rainfall to predatory wasps of Tuta absoluta

Abstract

In this study, we carried out three bioassays with nine used insecticides in tomato crops to identify their efficiency against tomato leaf miner Tuta absoluta, the physiological selectivity and the activity reduction of insecticides by three rain regimes to predatory wasps Protonectarina sylveirae and Polybia scutellaris. We assessed the mortality caused by the recommended doses of abamectin, beta-cyfluthrin, cartap, chlorfenapyr, etofenprox, methamidophos, permethrin, phenthoate and spinosad to T. absoluta and wasps at the moment of application. In addition, we evaluated the wasp mortality due to the insecticides for 30 days on plants that did not receive rain and on plants that received 4 or 125 mm of rain. Spinosad, cartap, chlorfenapyr, phenthoate, abamectin and methamidophos caused mortality higher than 90% to T. absoluta, whereas the pyrethroids beta-cyfluthrin, etofenprox and permethrin caused mortality between 8.5% and 46.25%. At the moment of application, all the insecticides were highly toxic to the wasps, causing mortality higher than 80%. In the absence of rain, all the insecticides continued to cause high mortality to the wasps for 30 days after the application. The toxicity of spinosad and methamidophos on both wasp species; beta-cyfluthrin on P. sylveirae and chlorfenapyr and abamectin on P. scutellaris, decreased when the plants received 4 mm of rain. In contrast, the other insecticides only showed reduced toxicity on the wasps when the plants received 125 mm of rain.

Keywords:

• Tomato pinworm
• Protonectarina sylveirae
• Polybia scutellaris
• rainfall
• chemical control
• conservation biological control

Funding

We wish to thank National Counsel of Technological and Scientific Development (CNPq), Coordination for the Improvement of Higher Education Personnel (CAPES), Minas Gerais State Research Foundation (FAPEMIG), Fundação de Apoio à Pesquisa e à Inovação Tecnológica (FAPITEC) and Banco do Nordeste do Brasil (BNB) for their financial support and the manufacturing companies for their donation of the insecticide products.