Control of larvae of the western corn rootworm /WCR/ (Diabrotica virgifera virgifera LeConte, 1868) József, TAKÁCS –Miklós, NÁDASY – Péter, BALOGH University of Veszprém, Georgikon Faculty of Agriculture, Institute of Plant Protection, Department of Agricultural Entomology

Portorož, 2005 feb march Female adult

Portorož, 2005 feb march Damages on leaves and tassels

Portorož, 2005 feb march Damages on silk and ears

Portorož, 2005 feb march Larvae of WCR

Portorož, 2005 feb march Root damage and plant lodging

Portorož, 2005 feb march Life cycle of WCR

Portorož, 2005 feb march Biology of the pest Diabrotica Overwinter in egg state (about 8 to 10 months in soil) Prolonged hatching of eggs (longer than a month) Three larval instars (Root damages under a two month period) Oviposition from July to October

Portorož, 2005 feb march Continuous hatching of eggs Problems of soil insecticides: High doses, risk of soil pollution Expensive Period of effectiveness Problems of seed coating: Period of effectiveness (less than a month) Need longer effectiveness period No need soil pollution Problems of WCR

Portorož, 2005 feb march MAVICELL pearl Microporous build Able to bind over triple dose of insecticide agents Prolonged transmittance of the agents even under two months 100 % cellulose Disorganize under three months in soil

Portorož, 2005 feb march Porous body of MAVICELL pearl Large absorptive surface to bind chemical and biological agents

Portorož, 2005 feb march Test object: Tanymecus dilaticollis GILLENHAL Greenhouse screening Mortality: Over 95 % even after the 60 th day.

Portorož, 2005 feb march Seeding machines: - Kuhn Planter Junior - Monosem NG Pus - JohnDeere Maxemerge Plough land applications

Portorož, 2005 feb march Problems of sowers Monosem: Its micro-granule adaptor not able to sow the large pearls (necessary to change the adaptor for sowing micro-granules) JohnDeere: Its not able to sow the complete dose of the pearl (only half dose)

Portorož, 2005 feb march Observations and data processing Inspection of regularity of sowing Estimation of the number of early stage pests (Corn Weevils – Tanymecus dilaticollis GILLENHAL) Measuring of larval damages with IOWA or Oleson-Tollefson scales Estimation of lodging after growth of ears Statistical analysis

Portorož, 2005 feb march Results of MAVICELL and differences between treatments Average damages in: Control: IOWA value 5 Soil treatment (Furadan): IOWA value 4 MAVICELL treatments: Under economical threshold (IOWA value 3,5)

Portorož, 2005 feb march TreatmentAverage*SdMultiple comparison** Gaucho 0.26 [M]3,140,92a Talstar [M]3,441,01a Furadan K.3,960,71b Mospilan [M]4,111,00b Absz. K.4,511,05c *: IOWA values, n=80 **: No significance between data marked with the same character on α = 0,5 (Data processed with SPSS for Windows 9.0) Statistical analysis of damaging on roots after washing

Portorož, 2005 feb march Results After three years of investigation we can say: MAVICELL is able to protect maize against WCR! Are there any losses of quality of pearl or agents? Checking with greenhouse screening! Costs of a hectare are much cheaper than the same with soil insecticides! We need to find a reliable method or seeding-machine to sow the pearls under the rows of corn!!!

Portorož, 2005 feb march