The sawtoothed grain beetle is a cosmopolitan pest of stored oats. Use of the fungus Beauveria bassiana or of resistant oat varieties results in only partial control of the beetle. We hypothesized that the fungus should be more effective for beetle control when combined with an oat variety that prolongs larval beetle development time because the fungus would have a longer period of time to act on the beetles. Our laboratory tests did not support this result. Percentage reduction in progeny production did not vary with larval development time. However, we did find that up to 70% control of the beetle was achieved using the fungus in combination with resistant oat cultivars. We then conducted dose-response studies to determine the optimal fungal dose for insect control. The fungus did not affect insect development time, but percentage reduction in progeny production increased with fungus dose on both cracked and whole oats. The use of resistant oat cultivars with the fungus may be a viable option for controlling insect pests of stored oats.
Species 1: Coleoptera Silvanidae Oryzaephilus surinamensis (sawtoothed grain beetle)
Keywords: biological control, host plant resistance
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