Eco-friendly alternatives for rice weevil management | ||
| البحوث التطبيقية في العلوم والانسانيات | ||
| Volume 2, Issue 1, 2025, Pages 91-105 PDF (1.24 M) | ||
| Document Type: المقالة الأصلية | ||
| DOI: 10.21608/aash.2025.458246 | ||
| Authors | ||
| Abdelrahman Hussein Emam; Kareem Nabil Ebrahim; Mahmoud Khaled Ahmed; Marco Nady Mhany; Mazen Mohamed Abd Elaziz; Eman Hassan Ismail | ||
| Associate Professor of Entomology Biological and Geological Sciences Department Faculty of Education Ain Shams University | ||
| Abstract | ||
| 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. | ||
| Keywords | ||
| Rice weevil; Sitophilus oryzae; plant oils; Botanical insecticides; repellency | ||
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