MONITORING THE TOXICITY OF DRY WOOD TERMITES USING THREE PLANT POWDERS IN LABORATORY CULTURE

Abstract

In order to model a suitable control alternative for subterranean termites and termites infesting wooden furniture and cabinets where consumables are likely stored, this present study monitored the efficacy of three plant powders at different doses (0.50-1.50g) against the dry wood termite,Cryptotermes cavifrons Banks (Blattodea). Plant materials were locally prepared into powders and assigned to 20 wood termites in 5g substrates of sand and stick. The culture was set up in triplicates and lethal concentrations were determined by Probit analysis. The plant powder could not exerted 100% mortality, but the highest mortality was recorded in Dennettia tripetala (1.50g) on stick (mean= 8.33±0.80). All concentration of D. tripetala on sand and stick caused mortality within 0 to 48 hours after exposure and compared favorably with Permethrin which recorded the highest mean time mortality on sand at 0-24 hrs after exposure. The lowest LC50value (0.75 and 0.79g/g) corresponded to Permethrin and D. tripetala on sand and stick respectively. This results suggest that best concentrations of pepper fruit powder can be adopted as potential alternative to chemical powders.