TY - JOUR AU - Acheampong, Mavis Agyeiwaa AU - Cornelius, Eric William AU - Eziah, Vincent Yao AU - Fening, Ken Okwae AU - Ofori, Kwadwo AU - Storm, Claire AU - Jessop, Nick AU - Luke, Belinda AU - Moore, David AU - Clottey, Victor Attuquaye AU - Potin, Olivier AU - Grammare, Pierre PY - 2023/02/01 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - Efficacy of Beauveria bassiana against adults of Prostephanus truncatus (Horn), Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky and Teretrius nigrescens Lewis in stored maize JF - African Entomology JA - Afr. Entomol. VL - 31 IS - SE - Articles DO - 10.17159/2254-8854/2023/a11734 UR - https://www.africanentomology.com/article/view/11734 SP - AB - <p>The larger grain borer, <em>Prostephanus truncatus </em>(Horn) and the maize weevil<em>, Sitophilus zeamais</em> Motschulsky continue to cause tremendous losses to stored maize. Research in the UK has identified <em>Beauveria bassiana</em>, IMI 389521 as a suitable control agent for grain storage pests in the UK. The pathogenicity of <em>B. bassiana</em>, IMI 389521 was evaluated against adult <em>P. truncatus</em>,<em> S. zeamais</em> and <em>Teretrius nigrescens </em>in Ghana. Fifty adults of each insect species were treated with 0.5 g dry conidia powder of this isolate at 8.65 <strong>×</strong> 10<sup>8 </sup>conidia/g for 1 minute and mortality recorded daily for 14 days. The results indicated that <em>B. bassiana</em>, is pathogenic against <em>P. truncatus</em> and <em>S. zeamais</em>, inducing over 90% mortality by day 7<em>. Teretrius nigrescens</em> was, however less susceptible to the fungus with 30% mortality. To determine the most effective concentration of <em>B. bassiana </em>for the control of <br /><em>P. truncatus</em>, a laboratory dose response experiment using four concentrations of <em>B. bassiana</em> (10<sup>8</sup>–10<sup>11</sup> cfu/kg maize) was also conducted. Maize grains (250 g) in separate jars were treated with the four concentrations of the product. Fifty adults of <em>P</em>. <em>truncatus</em> were placed into the jars containing the treated maize and mortality was assessed weekly for 3 weeks. The most effective dose was 10<sup>10</sup> cfu/kg maize, which resulted in 96% and 100% mortality of <em>P. truncatus</em> after 2 and 3 weeks, respectively. This study shows that <em>B. bassiana</em> could effectively be integrated into bio-control programme of these two key pests of maize in Ghana after further field trials.</p> ER -