Toxicity of Two Plant Essential Oils as Eco-friendly Fumigants against the Red Flour Beetle Tribolium castaneum

Abstract

Background: This study aims to extract essential oils from Artemisia herba alba and Eucalyptus camaldolensis plants and evaluate their effectiveness as eco-friendly natural fumigants against larvae and adults of red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum. Methods: The current study was conducted under laboratory conditions for the period from 2023-4 to 2023-8 in the Plant Protection Laboratory in the Diyala Agriculture Directorate, Iraq. Different concentrations of 2, 4, 6, 8 and 10 µL-1 air for exposure period of 24, 48 and 72 hours. Result: Larval mortality rates reached 100% at concentrations of 8 and 10 µL L-1 air for Eucalyptus and Artemisia, respectively. The mortality rate increases with increasing concentration in adults, where the highest killing rate was recorded at 8.10 µL L-1 air, reaching 90% and 100% for Artemisia, while it reached 96.6% and 100% for Eucalyptus, respectively. Mortality rates were high throughout the duration of the first exposure and these rates increased as the exposure period increased to 48 hours and 72 hours, with the next highest killing rates for concentrations of 6, 8 and 10 µL L-1 air for Artemisia and Eucalyptus oils. There was no significant difference with pesticide treatment. This indicates the possibility of using essential oils in the applied field to manage pest populations in store products.