Against flour beetle

Because of the importance of safe insecticides in the protection of foods, additional tests have been run against German cockroaches, red flour beetles, and Mexican bean beetle larvae. The residual deposit test was used on the first two insects, and a dust test on the bean beetles. The procedure for the latter method is to incorporate the materials into dusts which are distributed on bean leaves (6) piperonyl cyclonene, which is superior to butoxide against this insect, was included in this series of tests. 

Tests using helminth infections in a variety of laboratory animals soon revealed that the avermectins had activity against a variety of nematodes but lacked activity toward cestodes and trema-todes. During the course of testing in a number of other assays, they were found active against the flour beetle, Tribolium confusum (14). This activity against arthropods was confirmed in mice infected with larvae of the bot fly, Cuterebra fontinella. 

Essential oils from laurel were evaluated for fumigant toxicity against all developmental stages of the confused flour beetle (Tribolium confusum). GC-MS analysis showed that 1,8-cineole was the major component of the essential oils. The vapours of laurel essential oil were toxic to all the stages of T. confusum (Isikber et al., 2006). Repellency and toxicity of essential oil from L. nobilis (Lauraceae) against the rust-red flour beetle T. castaneum Herbst) were also reported by Andronikashvili and Reichmuth (2003). The toxicity of ethanol extracts from L. nobilis on the large diamondback moth, Plutella xylos-tella, was 55% (Erturk et al., 2004). 

AndronikashviIi, M. and Reichmuth, C. (2003) Repellency and toxicity of essential oils from Ocimum gratissi-mum (Lamiaceae) and Laurus nobilis (Lauraceae) from Georgia against the rust-red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum Herbst) (Coleoptera Tenebrionidae). Proceedings of 8th International Working Conference on Stored Product Protection, York, UK, 22-26 July 2002, pp. 749-762. 

In comparing the results of Ae two sets of experiments, it will be seen that red thyme was 41% less effective against LBAM than white thyme and in controlling Flour Beetle there was, in comparison, a 65% difference between the two botanical cultivars. Furthermore, the effectiveness of the essential oils drops off rapidly so that only eucalyptus, camphor, and white thyme may be considered as useful canidates. Oddly, black pepper was inactive in these assays, while in earlier work certain components of this commodity have been shown to have strong insecticidal properties. The earliest report being in 1943 (12), which was followed not only by later reports of insecticidal... 

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