Inovative “attract & kill” strategy for controling wireworms in sunflower

Abstract

Recent EU regulations aim at reducing the use of synthetic pesticides in agriculture. In sunflower production systems in Serbia, the use of insecticides as soil and seed treatments was predominant practice of wireworm (Coleoptera: Elateridae) control. However, a number of compounds that were effi ciently used as seed treatments are banned (neonicotinoids and carbofuran in 2014, bifenthrin in 2018), which imposes a need for novel approach in wireworm management. One of the promising alternatives is the use of entomopathogenic fungi (EPFs) as environmentally favorable microbiological agents. This work aimed at assessing the potential of an “Attract & Kill” strategy for controlling wireworms in sunflower in comparison with conventional insecticides. This strategy involved the use of the product “ATTRACAP®”, capsules containing the EPF Metarhizium brunneum and CO2 as attractant. The experiment was set in 2018, at Rimski šančevi (Novi Sad, Serbia), as a randomized block design with a) soil treatments with ATTRACAP® and tefluthrin based insecticide; b) seed treatments with thiacloprid, bifenthrin, tefluthrin and flupyradifurone based insecticides and c) the control (untreated seeds).