Biocontrol of Ephestia kuehniella and Galleria mellonella larva by bacterial strains obtained from pest infested gardens

Insect past inflict lots of damage to agricultural products every years. Limitation of chemical toxins in pest controls made the application of microorganisms so interesting and important.in the current study in order to evaluate the biological control of insect pest by bacteria two members of Lepidoptera ie, Ephestia kuehniella and Galleria mellonella were applied as test larva. The infested soils were collected from Khorasan-razavi gar-dens and kept in dark until analyzed in the laboratory. By culturing the samples in various media/conditions we obtained 200 bacterial isolated. Of then a total of 60 different strains were selected to study their larvicidal activity. In each experiment we put 10 healthy third star larva in sterile plate containing 2 gram suitable food. An appropriate bacterial counts from mid log culture were added to their diets. The dead larva was counted and removed from plates up to one week. A total of 28 strains could kill Ephestia kuehniella by the rate of 5-30% and 22 strains could kill 5-60 % of Galleria mellonella in comparison to the control. Further analysis including LC50 determination and identification of probable toxin(s) are in progress.

Keywords:

Biocontrol , Bacillus , Ephestia kuehniella , Galleria mellonella