Efficacy of some promising plant essential oils to control the red palm weevil Rhynchophorus ferrugineus olivier (coleoptera: curculionidae) under laboratory conditions

Abstract

Red Palm Weevil is the most dangerous palm pest in Egypt and the Middle East. This study was conducted to evaluate some plants essential oils for use in the control of this pest in egg and larval stages. five individual different oils (orange oil, lemon oil , eucalyptus oil , castor oil, and basil oil)and three mixtures of (chilli+ thyme + lavender =)k1, mixture of (Colocynth and neem) = k2,and mixture of (Radicchio + turmeric +Silene ) = k3 with 5 concentrations of 1%, 3%, 5%, 7% and 9% for each one was used as aqueous solutions. Each concertation contains three replicates with ten eggs or larva for each replicate. The eggs were sprayed with different solutions while the larvae were fed on the sugar cane pieces after being dipped in the solutions for 20 seconds. The results of statistical analysis showed superiority the plant oils from orange and lemon showed remarkable mortality (p≤ 0.05) in the number of dead larvae and non-hatched eggs followed by eucalyptus, basil and Castor while other treatments recorded low number of mortalities of larvae and non-hatched eggs. The L.S. D values (2.49 ,6.19) for eggs and larvae respectively, showed that there were significant differences between oils and significant differences between concentrations. orange and lemon oil showed the strongest effect at 9% followed by the other concentrations, while k1 and k2 oil had no significant difference with the control at 1%. The study showed that orange and lemon oils as well as eucalyptus, basil and castor can be used in the control of this pest in the stage of the egg and larva.