EFFICACY OF TWO ENTOMOPATHOGENIC FUNGI AND THEIR COMBINATION WITH SUMMER OIL AGAINST TOMATO MOTH, TUTA ABSOLUTA

Tomato moth, Tuta absoluta (Meyrick) (Lepidoptera: Gelechiidae), is the major pest of tomatoes almost throughout Turkey. Most of the insecticides used against tomato moth in Turkey failed to control this pest due to being resistance to many pesticides. In this study, the efficacy of two "Entomopathogenic Fungi" (EPFs), Beauveria bassiana (Bals.) and Metarhizium anisopliae (Metsch.), and their combinations with "Summer Oil" (SO) at a rate of 0.5% was investigated against the pest under greenhouse conditions in two consecutive tomato growing periods (fall-winter-2014 and spring 2015). In each growing period only one trial was conducted. Application rates of the EPFs were expressed in quantity of product delivered in 1000 liters of water/ha. The B. bassiana product (min. 4 x 10(9) conidia/ml) was applied at 1, 1.5, and 2 1/ha and the M. anisopliae product (5.5 x 10(9) conidia/ml) at 0.75, 1, and 1.25 l/ha. The results of the spray applications proved that egg and larval mortality varies by increasing of duration. The differences in most of mortalities on each sampling date were generally significant among the different conidial concentrations of both EPF products. Compared to the untreated control plots, both EPF products alone and their combinations with SO were able to control of eggs and larvae. However, SO combinations of these two EPF products were more effective than each of EPF product application alone in controlling of both the egg and the larvae. The results also indicated that B. bassiana + SO combination was particularly effective against eggs, by causing 86.4% and 79.7% mortalities with the highest dose in 2014 and 2015, respectively, whereas M. anisopliae + SO combination was more effective against larvae of the pest, by causing 83.2% and 81.4% mortalities with the highest dose in the same years, respectively. Overall results suggest that both EPF products and their SO combinations can be used within an integrated pest management (IPM) program against T. absoluta.