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Abstract
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Cotton bollworm, Helicoverpa armigera, is very sensitive to its nucleopolyhedrovirus. Since the virus is quickly losing its biological activity in the environment, and to overcome the slow rate of the virus action against the pest, attempts were conducted to fix these flaws by formulating the HearNPV suspensions. One concern accompanying with the formulations is their putative adverse effects on non-target organisms associated with pests targeted for control by applications of NPVs. International organization for biological control working group has proposed the protocol to test “the side-effects of all kinds of formulated pesticides on beneficial organisms”. According to this, laboratory studies were conducted to evaluate the compatibility of two HearNPV formulations to non-target insects. For the purpose, NGM strain of the virus mass multiplicated and then was formulated as a talc-based (TBF) and a tank-mix formulation (TMF). The non-target insects considered to evaluate in the study were two natural enemies of the cotton bollworm, an egg parasitoid Trichogramma chilonis, and a generalist predator Chrysoperla carnea, and two species of beneficial insects, Bombyx mori and honeybee Apis mellifera. Results clearly indicated no adverse effect of the wettable powder and suspension preparations of HearNPV when applied against the non-target insects. However, the formulations could be considered as the ecofriendly pest control agents in related IPM programs.
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