Biological control of oil palm insect pests in Indonesia

Nowadays, the implementation of biological control as the first choice on insect pest management has widely been implemented in oil palm plantation in Indonesia. Over decades, the use of predators and parasitoids has been introduced in many plantations to control caterpillars and bagworms. Thus presence in the field is maintained by planting beneficial weeds and using selective insecticide to targeted pests. Utilization of fungus, bacteria and viruses to control insect pests has widely been used and many commercial formulas were available in the market. Among those, application of fungus is most popular and efficacy of each to control major pests of oil palm has been demonstrated. Metarhizium anisopliae was widely known as a biological agent for controlling Oryctes rhinoceros larvae. Combination of M. anisopliae and lure to mass-trap beetle could decrease the population of O.rhinoceros in the field. In peat-land plantation, the use of M. anisopliae on organic trapping as a breeding site for O. rhinoceros was demonstrated with promising result. Formula of Cordyceps militaris to control nettle caterpillars pupae has been developed. Previous research showed that the application of C. militaris with traditional formula was able to infect Setothosea assigna pupae up to 80%. The use of other agent i.e. Bacillus thuringiensis and MNPV virus to control nettle caterpillar was also been conducted. It was shown that the application of B. thuringiensis could decrease the intensity of S. assigna from 163 ha to 3 ha within a year. Mortality of S. assigna in block with virus application increased to 91% on 10 days after application (DAA). Methods to re-propagate the virus were also developed to be available for laboratory practice. Recently, a new bio-insecticide formula containing consortium of Beauveria bassiana, M. anisopliae, C. milltaris and B. thuringiensis was developed in an effervescent tablet for ease of application. Promising result was shown on the preliminary efficacy of this formula. Shorter incubation period of M. anisopliae was observed on O. rhinoceros larvae with 100% mortality on 14 days after application. For nettle caterpillar, the product also showed good result to control both larvae and pupae. Combination of this product with termite baiting system (TBS) has also been demonstrated to control termites on peat-land plantation either preventively or curatively. However, lower efficacy result was observed on controlling bagworms. Despite that, better control result to the bagworm, Metisa plana was observed on the use of bio-insecticide containing mixture of azadirachtin, piperin and curcumin, with mortality higher than 75% on 10 DAA.