Guideline for the evaluation of side‐effects of plant protection products

Abstract

This guideline is concerned with the evaluation of the side‐effects of plant protection products on Encarsia formosa in the glasshouse. E.formosa is used for biological or integrated control of glasshouse whitefly, Trialeurodes vaporariorum (TRIAVA). Because field‐testing is laborious and costly, this guideline includes a sequential testing scheme involving three laboratory tests, which may serve to classify many products as definitely harmless or harmful without having recourse to field tests. In particular, the very stringent residual toxicity test on adults (the most sensitive stage) allows products to be classed as definitely harmless, since experience has shown that no product so classed by this test is ever harmful in field tests. The direct contact test on pupae (the most insensitive stage) makes it possible to exclude as definitely harmful products which exceed a certain threshold. Products which are not harmful to pupae in this test could still kill adults after emergence if they are sufficiently persistent. So a 3‐day persistence test makes it possible to exclude further products as too persistent. Finally, only products which appeared potentially harmful in the first test, but were harmless to pupae and non‐persistent, have to be field tested, and compared with harmful and harmless reference products, in order to decide on the final rating. This is further illustrated by the scheme in Fig. 1.The tests were developed according to the standard guidelines (Hassan, 1985) of the Working Group on ‘Pesticides and Beneficial Organisms’ of IOBC/WPRS (West Palaearctic Regional Section of the International Organization for Biological Control). An earlier version of the guideline was published (Oomen, 1985), before passing through the full EPPO guideline approval procedure.