Implantation of Acephate and Injection of Microbial Insecticides into Pin Oaks for Control of Gypsy Moth: Time and Efficacy Comparisons    (View PDF)

S.J. Fleischer, D. Delorme, F.W. Ravlin and R.J. Stipes

Abstract: The efficacy and temporal pattern of gypsy moth mortality resulting from implantation and injection of pin oaks with synthetic organic (acephate) and microbial (gypsy moth nucleopolyhedrosis virus = NPV, and Bacillus thuringiensis Berliner = B.t.) insecticides was investigated. All mortality occurred in the larval stage. Implantation of acephate produced significant increases in cumulative mortality. Neither microbial treatment showed a significant increase in mortality over controls. In all acephate treated trees, and in one of three B.t. treated trees, there was an exponential sigmoid pattern of increase in cumulative mortality over time. There was considerable variation among trees. In the acephate treatment, this was expressed as variation in the lag-time of a sigmoid mortality pattern. In the S.f. treatment, larvae on only one of three trees showed a mortality response. The successful use of implantation of acephate in this and other recent papers suggest that this technology will undoubtedly have a place in gypsy moth integrated pest management programs in urban environments. Further work to determine the reasons for the lack of success with the microbials is warranted.

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https://doi.org/10.48044/jauf.1989.034