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Entomopathogenic Beauveria bassiana granules to control soil-dwelling stage of western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Thysanoptera: Thripidae)

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Abstract

The western flower thrip, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande) (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), is recognized as a serious pest worldwide, but overuse of chemical pesticides results in environmental pollution and insect resistance. Herein we report the biocontrol of soil-dwelling stages of western flower thrips using entomopathogenic Beauveria bassiana granules. Using a B. bassiana isolate expressing enhanced green fluorescent protein (Bb-egfp), we confirmed that Bb-egfp was highly virulent to the thrips and colonized the soil, which allowed soil-dwelling pupae to come in contact with the colonized fungal mass. In a glasshouse trial, granules of BbERL836 and BbERL1578 isolates were applied to the soil surface of tomatoes growing in pots and female F. occidentalis were released on tomato plants three days after the fungal application. Populations reductions between 75 and 90% were observed in the treatments of BbERL836 and BbERL1578 at 20 and 40 days after application (chemical control: 85% reduction). In the field trial with cucumbers, the two ERL soil treatments showed ca. 90% control efficacy, similar to that of spinetorm, a semi-synthetic insecticide (85% efficacy). This study shows that using entomopathogenic B. bassiana granules to kill soil-dwelling stages of thrips is an effective strategy to manage F. occidentalis populations in tomato and cucumber.

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Acknowledgements

We would like to thank Dr. Sang-Kae Lee at the Rural Development Administration for providing western flower thrips and Drs. Bruce L. Parker and Margaret Skinner in University of Vermont, USA for editing this manuscript before submission. This work was carried out with the support of the “Cooperative Research Program for Agriculture Science & Technology Development (Project No. PJ011399012015)”, Rural Development Administration, Republic of Korea.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Department of Agricultural Biology, College of Agriculture and Life Sciences, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, 54596, Korea

    Se Jin Lee, Sihyeon Kim, Jong Cheol Kim, Mi Rong Lee, Muktadir S. Hossain & Jae Su Kim

  2. Crop Protection R&D Center, Farm Hannong (LG Affiliated Co.), 39-23, Nonsan, Korea

    Taek Su Shin & Tae Hoon Kim

  3. Plant Medical Research Center, College of Agricultural and Life Sciences, Chonbuk National University, Jeonju, 54596, Korea

    Jae Su Kim

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  1. Se Jin Lee
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  2. Sihyeon Kim
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  3. Jong Cheol Kim
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Correspondence to Jae Su Kim.

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Handling Editor: Helen Roy.

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Lee, S.J., Kim, S., Kim, J.C. et al. Entomopathogenic Beauveria bassiana granules to control soil-dwelling stage of western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Thysanoptera: Thripidae). BioControl 62, 639–648 (2017). https://doi.org/10.1007/s10526-017-9818-8

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