Control effects of 20 chemical insecticides and new strains of Bacillus thuringiensis against the fungus gnat (Bradysia difformis, Sciaridae, Diptera)

The fungus gnat, Bradysia difformis, damages various crops in greenhouses and is recognized as an important pest around the world. Additionally, in the future, many other greenhouse crops will be added to the list of crops damaged by the fungus gnat. In this study, to find effective control methods for the fungus gnat, the insecticidal effect of 20 chemical synthetic insecticides was tested with the potato disc and pot treatment methods; additionally, the control effect of 16 strains of B. thuringiensis was examined with the potato disk method. The fungus gnat larvae were treated for 2 days with each of the synthetic insecticides to determine insecticidal effect using the potato disc method. The results were as follows. Among the highly insecticidal active pesticides, chlorfenapyr exhibited a 100% insecticidal activity, and fenazaquin, acetamiprid, dinotefuran, fenthion and thiamethoxam exhibited more than a 90% insecticidal activity. For the pot treatment method, chlorfenapyr exhibited a 3.3% insecticidal effect, and thiamethoxam, acetamiprid, dinotefuran, fenthion, etc. exhibited an insecticidal effect of less than 10% of the emergence rate to adult fungus gnat after 14 days of treatment. To select the B. thuringiensis strains that have an insecticidal effect on the fungus gnat, 16 strains were biologically assayed using the potato disc method. Among the 16 strains, Bt-3, Bt-8 and Bt-13 had more than a 70% insecticidal effect. The $LC_{50}$ and $LC_{95}$ values of Bt-3, Bt-8 and Bt-13 were $3.7{\times}10^5$ and $4.7{\times}10^8cfu/ml$, $1.4{\times}10^5$ and $1.1{\times}10^7cfu/ml$, and $1.4{\times}10^5$ and $1.3{\times}10^7cfu/ml$, respectively.