Compatibility of early natural enemy introductions in commercial pepper and tomato greenhouses with repeated pesticide applications

Successful integrated pest management in protected crops implies an evalu-ation of the compatibility of pesticides and natural enemies(NE),as control strategies that only rely on one tactic can fail when pest populations exceed NE activity or pests become resistant to pesticides.Nowadays in Almeria(Spain),growers release NE prior to transplanting or early in the crop cycle to favor their settlement before pest arrival because this improves biocontrol efficacy,although it extends pesticide exposure periods.The pur-pose of this research was to evaluate the compatibility of two applications of pesticides with key NE in 2-year trials inside tomato and sweet pepper commercial greenhouses:Nesidiocoris tenuis(Reuter)(Hemiptera:Miridae),Orius laevigatus(Say)(Hemiptera:Anthocoridae)and Amblyseius swirskii(Athias-Henriot)(Acari:Phytoseidac).In tomato,flubendiamide and chlorantraniliprole(IOBC category 1)were compatible with N.tenuis,but chlorpyrifos.:methyl and spinosad(IOBC categories 2-3),which efectively reduced Tiuta absoluta(Meyrick)(Lepidoptera:Gelechidae)density,compromised its predatory activity.In sweet pepper,chlorantraniliprole(IOBC category 1)was the only pesticide compatible with O.laevigatus while chlorantraniliprole,emamectin benzoate,spirote-tramat and pymetrozine were harmless(IOBC category 1)to Amblyseius swirskii,and sulfoxaflor slightly harmful(IOBC category 2)to this phytoseiid predator.

Foliar persistence and residual activity of methoxyfenozide against beet armyworm （Lepidoptera： Noctuidae）

A greenhouse study was conducted to investigate the persistence of methoxyfenozide in pepper （Capsicum annuum L.） foliage. An aqueous suspension of methoxyfenozide was sprayed on pepper plants at concentrations of 72 and 144 mg of active ingredient （a.i.）/L. Foliage was collected at different intervals of time （0, 3, 5, 10, 20, 30, 40, and 50 days） after the treatment, and the methoxyfenozide residue was measured by high-performance liquid chromatography. The foliage was also used in bioas- says to determine the residual toxicity on and the consumption rate of the third-instar larvae of the beet armyworm, Spodoptera exigua （Htibner） （Lepidoptera： Noctuidae）. The methoxyfenozide concentrations observed after 50 days had decreased to 19 and 69μg/g per sample, corresponding to a loss of 61% and 28% from the application concentrations of 72 and 144 mg a.i./L, respectively. When fitting a first-order kinetics degradation model, the half-life （DT50） of this compound was 76 days. Both application concentrations of methoxyfenozide caused a high mortality rate （〉97%） when the larvae were fed the pepper foliage collected at all of the time intervals. Lastly, at all of the time points, the consumption rate by the larvae was reduced to between 57% and 92% for both concentrations that were bioassayed. Our results indicate that, under the present greenhouse conditions, the degradation of methoxyfenozide was slower than that reported by other authors and that its residues were highly toxic to S. exigua larvae. The implications of these results for the management programs of this pest are discussed.