Red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (herbst), occurs worldwide, is a devastating pest of stored grains particularly the previously damaged cereals. Grub feed on embryo and germ portion of seeds and grains with release of quinines which gives unpleasant odour in serve infestation. To control this pest, chemical pesticides and fumigants are widely employed, which lead to the development of insect resistance. Nowadays, phosphine resistance is a major concern and it also affects human health and the environment. Therefore, it must need to implement an alternative management strategy for pest control. In present study the insecticidal and repellent effect of three botanicals viz. sweet flag (Acorus calamus), black pepper (Piper nigrum), and clove (Syzygium aromaticum) has been evaluated against red flour beetle under laboratory conditions with different exposure time that were replicated thrice. The highest insecticidal effect was observed in black pepper after fifteen days of treatment followed by sweet flag and clove at 88.66%, 85.34%, and 76.56% respectively. Botanical extract exhibited repellent activity against red flour beetle with highest repellency was observed in sweet flag rhizomes extract after 48 hours of treatment 68.42% followed by black pepper and clove at 64.76%, 61.29% respectively. These findings show that sweet flag, black pepper, and clove possess essential components which impart insecticidal and repellent activity to control insect pests.

Acorus calamus, red flour beetle, repellency, insecticidal effects, botanicals

It is concluded that all the three natural plant botanicals have tendency to control T. castaneum population in wheat grains. Black paper and sweet flag shows the highest insecticidal and repellent effect on T. castaneum. These powders can be used as potential agent for the plant protection strategies which are easily available and biodegradable without any risk to human health. Hence further studies should conduct to evaluate the potential of tested botanicals to control the pests of stored grains.

Punam N. Madavi, A.K. Sadawarte, D.B. Undirwade, M.P. Moharil and N.S. Satpute (2022). Insecticidal and Repellent effect of Botanicals against Red Flour Beetle Tribolium castaneum, (Herbst) Pest of Stored Grains. Biological Forum – An International Journal, 14(4a): 134-137.