Evaluation of cucumber and tomato pests and diseases biological control agents in greenhouse
2013
Shahrokhi-Khaneghah, Shahram, Iranian Research Institute Of Plant Protection | Ranjbar-Aghdam, Hossein | Malkeshi, Hassan | Asgari, Shahriar | Baniameri, Valiollah | Shasti, Mohammad Reza | Aliakbari, Ahmad
Aphids are of the most important pests of greenhouse crops because they cause a significant yield loss. In this study, the possibility of biological control of cucumber aphids by parasitoids in greenhouse was studied. Parasitoid wasps were provided by Iranian Bazr Alvand company, representative of Copert company in the Netherlands. Aphis gossypii (Glover) was the most abundant cucumber aphid species and so, Aphidius colemani Viereck with trade name of Aphipar® was used regarding to the producer company's recommendation, and Ervipar® was not used. Experiments were carried out in greenhouse of local farmers in Varamin and Pishva, Tehran province of Iran. After quality control of bio-products in terms of adult emergence from mummies and longevity, parasitoids were released according to the producer company's recommendation in infested parts of greenhouse to the aphids. Before and 10 days after releasing the parasitoids, the number of live and mummified aphids were counted on leaves of 20 infested cucumber plants. Paired T-test then was used to determine the performance of the released parasitoids. Also, 50 cucumber plants were visited randomly at intervals of about 10 meters to determine infested plants and parasitism percentages. According to the results, releasing Aphipar® bio-product parasitoids resulted in a significant percentage of aphid parasitism so that in many cases, up to 93.2% of cucumber aphid population was parasitized 10 days after the parasitoid release. Aphid population was also significantly reduced after parasitoid releasing and proved high efficacy of this group of natural enemies in biological control of cucumber aphids in greenhouse.
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