Efficiency of Some Plant Extracts, Pesticides and the Entomopathogenic Fungus Metarhizium anisopliae in Controlling the Tomato Moth, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) in the Field

Abstract

Raad, M.F., S.Z. Baker and A.A. Kareem. 2023. Efficiency of Some Plant Extracts, Pesticides and the Entomopathogenic Fungus Metarhizium anisopliae in Controlling the Tomato Moth, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) in the Field. Arab Journal of Plant Protection, 41(2): 127-133. https://doi.org/10.22268/AJPP-41.2.127133 A field study was conducted to evaluate the efficacy of Conocarpus erectus leaf and Illicium verum extracts, Belt 480 SC and Movento 100 SC and the Metarhizium anisopliae (WP) biological preparation in controlling the tomato moth T. absoluta on the tomato cultivar Ahlam. The results obtained showed that all treatments were able to reduce fruit infestation rate, leaf mining level and severity of infestation by the insect. The combined treatment of M. anisopliae + Movento was superior by preventing fruit infestation, with the lowest leaf mining level and infestation severity, which amounted to 0.00, 6.00 and 0.5%, respectively, four weeks after treatment. The general average of the same treatment was 3.41, 9.08 and 0.77%, respectively, and the combined treatment (Belt + M. anisopliae) came second in the average fruit infestation rate (7.74%) and third in leaf-mining level, and infestation severity, which amounted to 12.41 and 1.10%, respectively. However, the Movento 100 SC treatment ranked third in fruits infestation rate and second in leaf-mining level which reached 8.08 and 10.49%, respectively, and it did not differ significantly from the combined treatment M. anisopliae + Movento in infestation severity with an average of 7.30%, whereas the treatment star anise + M. anisopliae ranked third, with an average infestation severity of 30.9%. Keywords: T. absoluta, insecticides, M. anisopliae, Conocarpus erectus, star anice