EFFECTIVENESS OF FORMULATED BEAUVERIA BASSIANA AND NEEM OIL IN CONTROLLING TUTA ABSOLUTA LARVAE ON TOMATO

Abstract

T. absoluta is one of the major pests that damage tomato crops, result in significant losses in production. This concept arose from my interest in managing T. absoluta larvae using safe and effective methods, due to their notable resistance to pesticides. The objective of this study was to evaluated successful neem oil formulation and the entomopathogenic fungus B. bassiana in suppression T. absoluta larvae under protected environment. In addition, the corrected mortality % (CM) of larval after 24,48,72 and 96 hr from applying the treatments under vivo conditions and to determine the inhibition percentage of B. bassiana six days after treatments application under vitro conditions. Neem oil extract (20ml/l), B. bassiana (2ml/l), combination of both agent (20ml/l + 2ml/l) and an untreated control were the four treatments administered to tomato seedling under vivo condition using completely randomized design (CRD) with six replicated per treatment. While, experiment under vitro condition using PDA media to measure impact of different neem oil concentrations (0.25%, 0.5%, 1%, 1.5%, 2% and 2.5%) on B. bassiana. The results reported that the neem oil treatment a higher larval mortality. Neem oil treatment resulted in variable larva mortality, range from 41.67-44.83% during 24-96 hr. The application of B. bassiana alone reported moderate effectiveness against T. absoluta larvae under greenhouse conditions during 4 days (13.83-16.50%). While, the combined application of neem oil and B. bassiana demonstrated limited efficacy during the early exposure periods, with mortality observed only after prolong exposure. Statistical analysis indicated that differences between neem oil treatment and other treatments were significant P < 0.05. In conclusion, the use of neem oil, B. bassiana and their combine application demonstrating promising potential in reducing larval mortality of T. absoluta. Therefore, these treatments are recommended as part of an integrated pest management (IPM) strategy in greenhouse tomato cultivation, due to its high effectiveness, environmental sustainability and the absence of any negative interaction between two agents.