Control of Bemisia tabaci in Greenhouse Tomato using Systemic Insecticide-treated Trap Plant

This study aimed to develop a new control method of Bemisia tabaci using a tobacco plant treated with systemic insecticide in tomato greenhouse cultivation. In the preference tests, it was demonstrated that tobacco is a better B. tabaci attractant than the seven tested solanaceous plants. Most importantly, B. tabaci prefers tobacco (65%) to the main host plant, tomato (35%). Among 6 systemic insecticides, dinotefuran WG was highly effective (mortality > 97.3%) against B. tabaci and exhibited less or non-disruptive tendency on insect behavior on dinotefuran-treated tobacco plants. The dinotefuran concentrations in tobacco leaves obtained using modified QuEChERS method with liquid tandem mass spectrometry rapidly increased over time, and mortality of B. tabaci populations recovered from tobacco leaves was over 90% within 24 hrs after insecticide treatment. The mortalities were consistently over 90 to 100% until 35 d. The upper leaves of tobacco showed slightly higher concentration of insecticide, including the resultant B. tabaci mortalities than the lower leaves. Compared with that of greenhouse with no tobacco plants (100%), the population of B. tabaci in greenhouses with two and three insecticide-treated tobacco plants increased by 53%-63% and 22% respectively. These results confirmed that a dinotefuran-treated tobacco plant can be an effective trap plant for the control of B. tabaci in tomato cultivation greenhouses. KCI Citation Count: 0