The Efficiency of The Parasitoid, Trichogramma sp. Against Some Date Pests

Abstract

The date palm tree and its fruits are attacked by several pests that are well adapted to the Egyptian environment that can cause a loss in yield ranged between 30-70%. To control these pests, chemical insecticides were intensively used. However, using chemical insecticides cannot be reliable and safe for long-term pest management solutions because of many serious problems, such as high economic cost, negative impact on the environment and human health, and some pests develop resistance towards them. Therefore, the present study was carried out to investigate the effectiveness of releasing the egg parasitoid, Trichogramma evanescenes, against some date palm fruits at Al Mansoureyah, Imbaba, Giza Governorate, Egypt during two successive growing season, 2018 and 2019. Two traditional chemicals were also used, Pyriban and sulfur. The results showed the successful release of the parasitoid as the high reduced infestation rate observed during the growing seasons 2018 and 2019 compared to conventional methods. So, T. evanescenes is a successful and reliable control method to be used on long- and short-term strategy.