Eco-friendly alternatives for rice weevil management

نوع المستند : المقالة الأصلية

المؤلفون

Associate Professor of Entomology Biological and Geological Sciences Department Faculty of Education Ain Shams University

10.21608/aash.2025.458246

المستخلص

Rice is one of the major cereal crops and staple food for large part of the world, especially Egypt. Unfortunately,
huge quantities of it are lost because of being infected with insect pests during storage. The rice weevil, Sitophilus
oryzae (Coleoptera: Curculionidae), is one of those pests. Such insect pests are controlled by using highly toxic
chemicals that threaten human health and negatively affect the environment. The trend has been to search for ecofriendly
insecticides instead of these dangerous chemicals. Plant oils have emerged as promising alternatives for
managing storage pests for their eco-friendly properties, rapid biodegradability, and lower toxicity to humans and
the environment. So, the present research bio-assayed the repellent effect of five essential oils; basil, clove, lavender,
peppermint, and thyme, using three laboratory bioassays: food preference tests (including multiple- and two-choice
bioassays) and an area-preference test. Results indicated that lavender oil exhibited the strongest repellent effect
across all bioassays, followed by thyme oil, which also showed a marked repellency in the two-choice tests. In
contrast, basil oil displayed mixed results, showing a repellent effect in the multiple-choice test while acting as an
attractant in the two-choice bioassay. Peppermint and clove oils yielded moderate to insignificant effects depending
on the test-type applied. Results support the potential of essential oils as natural and environmentally friendly
alternatives to chemical insecticides, contributing to the protection of stored grains without harming human health
or the environment.

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