Nowadays, use of microbial pesticides instead of chemicals is very important and significant to protect the environment. Verticillium lecanii (Z), the entomopathogenic fungus (EPF) is widely used for extermination of many pests.
In this work, we studied the effects of infection and reinfection in accordance with the time and days, spore density, and growth stage of small leafhoppers after spraying with dilute solution of V. lecanii spores on the small leafhopper, E. flavescens.
When E. flavescens was sprayed on the small leafhopper parasitically living in the peach trees(18℃, 85%), they couldn't move 36 hours later and after 48 hours their body color changed into bright yellow, 60 hours later, they died.
When E. flavescens was sprayed with over 1.25×108 spores/ml of spore solution indoors, the reduction % was over 80% after 5 days, and the decrease of imagoes was higher than that of larvae. Outdoors, E. flavescens was reduced by 50% for 3 years after treatment, while the reduction % was about 90% by reinfection year by year.
Ninety percentages of E. flavescens on peach trees can be effectively exterminated in 2 years by spraying the spore dilute solution of V. lecanii, and no chemical pesticides are needed for the control of E. flavescens in practice.
Detailed work has published in the journal of "Egyptian Journal of Biological Pest Control" with the title of "Biological control of the small leafhopper, Empoasca favescens F. (Homoptera: Cicadellidae) using the entomopathogenic fungus, Verticillium lecanii"(https://doi.org/10.1186/s41938-023-00682-3).
