Management of Stored Grain Pests

The newly enhanced diatomaceous earth formulation and Metarhizium anisopliae was evaluated for its insecticidal efficacy against stored grain pests. For this validation 1 kg lot of all grains were treated with three dose rates 50, 100 and 150 ppm of DE. Samples were taken at the day of 1st storage and each 45 d until the end of a 180 day era of storage. Mortality of adults after 14 days of disclosure was >80% on wheat at the beginning of storage than rice, maize and sorghum. During the first 90 days, adult mortality was increased and progeny emergence was less in the beginning of storage. Mixture of new enhanced DE Gain-Guard and Metarhizium anisopliae against stored grain pests was applied at the application rate of 1.7104 conidia alone or in combination of enhanced DE with two dose rates 25 and 50 ppm on wheat. New enhanced DE was more effective than fungal conidia alone. The new insecticide based DE in the fungal conidia at the highest dose rate provided antagonistic interactions while with low dose rate additive interactions. The cadavers offered maximum percentage of mycosis and sporulation when fungi were tested alone while low was observed in mixture of both.