Insecticidal effects of Chitosan–formulated etofenprox and α-cypermethrin against Myzus persicae and Aphis gossypii (Homoptera: Aphididae)
The possibility of commercializing the controlled release of chitosan carrier nano formulation was examined with mortalities and population increase rates of Aphis gossypii and Myzus persicae after treatment of 2 α-cypermethrin nano type formulations of different chitosan carrier molecular weight (M.W. 3,000 and 30,000) and 2 etofenprox nano types of chitosan content (70% and 80%). After 14 days of treatment, α-cypermethrin nano formulation showed over 40% mortality against A. gossypii. Therefore, it was confirmed that the insecticide release was controlled through chitosan carrier. Results of the investigation of insecticidal activity of α-cypermethrin nano formulation showed there were no differences between nano types at 4 days after treatment. However, after 14 days, the population increase rate treated with chitosan M.W. 30,000 formulation was -0.037, much lower than that of M.W. 3,000 formulation with 0.231. The result exhibits that chitosan M.W. 30,000 formulation would be a suitable controlled release formulation. On the other hand, etofenprox formulations didn’t show any significant insecticidal effect or persistency difference against both aphid species.