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Boll weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) bait sticks: Toxicity and malathion content

Informally Refereed

Abstract

Assays of malathion content and toxicity to boll weevil, Anll~onorni~gsr andis granrlis Boheman, were conducted on boll weevil bait sticks, now marketed as Boll Weevil Attract ancl Control Tubes (BWACTs: Plato Industries, Houston, TX). In general. the longer BWACTs were in the field, the lower the mortality of weevils that were exposed to them. Bioassays of weevil mortality correlated with hexane washes of BWACT surfaces showed highly variable mortality when surface malathion fell below =20 ng per 1 μ of hexane, but consistently high mortality (290%) when surface malathion was above 30 ng per 1 μ of hexane. A linear equation was calculated to predict rnortality as a function of malathion on a BWACT surface. Although mortality was related to surface amounts of malathion, it was unrelated to the total amount of malathion present in BWACTs. Similarly, surface malathion was unrelated to the total aniot~npt resent in BWACTs. As with mortality, amount of surface malathion? declined wid1 time, but total malathiorl did not decline with time. Boll weevils placed on fresh BWACTs tended to accumulate more malathion and died in greater numbers as time spent on fresh tubes increased, but not as time spent on tubes aged in the field (for 5 mo total) increased. Weevils that landed on tubes after a short flight died in approxirnately the same numbers as those that were placed 011 tubes using proper methodologyT. he amount of malathion expected to cause 90% mortality of boll weevils subjected to proper methodology was 47% higher than for a less stringent methodology (34.3 versus 23.4 ng), which demonstrates the importance of strictly adhering to proper methodology; nevertheless, chemical assay of malathion on the BWACT surface proved to be a more consistent measure of BWACT toxicity than bioassay, and it should replace the bioassay.

Keywords

Boll weevil, bait, malathion, toxicity

Citation

Villavaso, Eric J.; Mulrooney, Joseph E.; Mcgovern, William L. 2003. Boll weevil (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) bait sticks: Toxicity and malathion content. J. Econ. Entomol. 92(2): 311-321
https://www.fs.usda.gov/research/treesearch/20308