Effects of de-rubberized guayule, Parthenium argentatum Gray (Asteraceae), resin on adult boll weevils, Anthonomus grandis grandis Boheman (Coleopotera: Curculiondiae) in the laboratory

Authors: Showler, Allan

Submitted to: Biopesticides International
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 1/11/2023
Publication Date: N/A
Citation: N/A

Interpretive Summary: Alternative tactics to conventional insecticides for protection of cotton from boll weevils are needed for cotton grown in or near environmentally sensitive and urban areas, and for organically-grown cotton. Guayule, a shrub from the Chihuahua, Mexico, desert, yields rubber, and this study demonstrates that discarded resin, applied at various dilutions with acetone to adult boll weevils, causes substantial knockdown for 48-72 h at high concentrations. While the substance was not particularly lethal to the insects, it id d cause the notable knockdown at higher dosages, as well as deterrence from laying eggs and feeding on treated cotton buds.

Technical Abstract: Alternative tactics to conventional insecticides for protection of cotton from boll weevils, Anthonomus grandis grandis Boheman, are needed for cotton grown in or near environmentally sensitive and urban area, and for organically-grown cotton. Guayule, Parthenium argentatum Gray, a shrub endemic to the Chihuahuan desert, yields rubber, and we demonstrated that the usually discarded resin, applied a various dilutions with acetone to adult boll weevils, causes substantial knockdown for 48-72 h at high concentrations. Although knockdown of boll weevils might not be commercially important, 5-7-mm-diameter cotton buds dipped in the dilutions from 1:2 to 1:50 repelled adult weevils, and deterred feeding and oviposition, in choice and no-choice bioassays. This study suggests that guayule resin might be a useful tactic for protection of cotton against adult boll weevils of both sexes, and, possibly, against other important arthropod pests of cotton and additional crops.