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Entomotoxic effect of silica nanoparticles against Sitophilus oryzae (L.)

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Abstract

Fumigants and residual insecticides are commonly used to combat stored grain pests. In recent years, consumer awareness of the health hazard from residual toxicity and the growing problem of insect resistance to these conventional insecticides have led the researchers to look for alternative strategies for stored grains protection. For example, diatomaceous earth (DE) can be effective against stored grain insects. In this study, DE was used to design amorphous nano sized hydrophilic, hydrophobic, and lipophilic silica in 15–30 nm size range. Nanocides are expected to reduce the volume of application and kinetics of development of resistance in pests. We hypothesized that surface-functionalized silica nanoparticle (SNP) might be a viable alternative to conventional pesticides. Entomotoxicity of SNP was tested against rice weevil Sitophilus oryzae and its efficacy was compared with bulk-sized silica (individual particles larger than 1 μm). Amorphous SNP was found to be highly effective against this insect pest causing more than 90% mortality, indicating the effectiveness of SNP to control insect pests.

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Acknowledgments

Authors would like to thank Department of Biotechnology, Govt. of India, (DBT) (grant Nos—BT/PR9050/NNT/28/21/2007 & BT/PR8931/NNT/28/07/2007) and NAIP, ICAR (grant No—NAIP/Comp-4/C3004/2008-09) for their financial support. Indian Statistical Institute (ISI) plan project for 2008-2011 was also used for funding this work. Authors are also grateful to Mr. Debashis Roy and Raju Maity (Indian Statistical Institute) for their assistance in statistical analysis, and Mrs. Indrani Roy for her valuable suggestions regarding this manuscript.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Biological Sciences Division, Indian Statistical Institute, 203 B.T. Road, Kolkata, 700 108, West Bengal, India

    Nitai Debnath, Sumistha Das, Dipankar Seth & Arunava Goswami

  2. West Bengal University of Technology, BF- 142, Sector- I, Salt Lake, Kolkata, 700 064, West Bengal, India

    Nitai Debnath

  3. Institute Instrumentation & Centre of Nanotechnology, Indian Institute of Technology, Roorkee, 247 667, Uttaranchal, India

    Ramesh Chandra

  4. Agricultural & Ecological Research Unit, Indian Statistical Institute, Giridih, 815 301, Jharkhand, India

    Somesh Ch. Bhattacharya

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  1. Nitai Debnath
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  2. Sumistha Das
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  3. Dipankar Seth
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  4. Ramesh Chandra
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  5. Somesh Ch. Bhattacharya
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  6. Arunava Goswami
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Correspondence to Nitai Debnath.

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Communicated by C.G. Athanassiou.

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Debnath, N., Das, S., Seth, D. et al. Entomotoxic effect of silica nanoparticles against Sitophilus oryzae (L.). J Pest Sci 84, 99–105 (2011). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-010-0332-3

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s10340-010-0332-3

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