Reported herein is the use of mycotized millet grains with entomopathogenic fungi applied to soil to control western flower thrips (WFT), Franklinella occidentalis. The majority of mature larvae move from plants to soil for pupation. Mycotized millet grains with Beauveria bassiana ERL1170 and Metarhizium anisopliae ERL1171 were mixed in the upper layer of potting soil containing a blossomed marigold as a banker plant. B. bassiana GHA, a commercial isolate, served as a control. One week post applicaion 3 mated WFT females were added per plant. At 8 wks post infestation WFT mortality in pots with ERL1170 and ERL1171 treatments was 90% and 81% respectively compared to GHA with 15% mortality. Plants in the two ERL treatments had lower levels of damage. The insecticidal activities were positively associated with the fungal soil colonization. No significant release of fungal innoculum from the potting medium was observed. These results suggest that soil applications of entomopathogenic fungi can reduce WFT populations to significantly low levels by targeting pupae. Application timing and the life cycle of WFT are important considerations.

Western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis(Perg.), is one of the major pests of lettuce, Lactuca sativa. To develop the economic thresholds for western flower thrips on lettuce, the thrips was inoculated into two types of lettuce, green deeply lobed leaf lettuce which was harvested every week and red frilled & crinkled leaf lettuce which was harvested one time, with a density of 0, 1, 3, 7, 10 thrips per one lettuce after planting 1 week and 3 weeks at the plastic house in 2006, and 0, 1, 3, 5, 7 thrips per one lettuce after planting 1 week in 2007. There was close correlation between the initial thrips density and the marketable quantity of lettuce : y = -155.36x + 3564.7, r2=0.9724('06), y = -167.82x + 3474.5, r2=0.8897('07) in the green deeply lobed leaf lettuce inoculated the thrips after planting 1 week, y = -109.65x + 3549.1, r2=0.9384('06) in the green deeply lobed leaf lettuce inoculated the thrips after planting 3 weeks, y = -197.09x + 3334.9, r2=0.9707('06), y = -244.08x + 3425.9, r2=0.8914('07) in the red frilled & crinkled leaf lettuce inoculated the thrips after planting 1 week, y = -101.07x + 3457.6, r2=0.7334('06) in the red frilled & crinkled leaf lettuce inoculated the thrips after planting 3 weeks. The economic threshold for western flower thrips on lettuce was ranged 0.20～0.30 thrips per one lettuce in the blue type lettuce and 0.14～0.33 thrips per one lettuce in the red type lettuce.

Frankliniella occidentalis Pergande (Thysanoptera: Thripidae) is economically important pest of various crops causing damage through direct feeding and transmitting tospoviruses. In a previous study differential responses of the thrips to various geometrical patterns of yellow sticky card were found. Therefore, in this study, we compared the behavioral responses of the thrips to visual and olfactory cues in cylindrical black box and Y-tube olfactometer, respectively. Multiple or pair wise choice tests were carried out among/between six geometrical patterns of yellow color paper and artificial flowers. The thrips preferred circular shape to other geometrical patterns in multiple choice test. In pair wise choice test between three geometrical patterns, i.e., circular, rectangle, and modified circular, and artificial strawberry flowers, the thrips showed preference to the yellow artificial flower than any other cues. The thrips resided on the yellow artificial flower almost 4 times more than other patterns. In Y-tube olfactometer test, higher number of the thrips chose the arm with p-anisaldehyde and artificial flower compared to the arm with only the artificial flower. Higher number of the thrips also chose the arm containing both visual and real flower odor as compared to arm with the only real flower odor. The potentials and application of these results in the development of attraction traps for the thrips management have been discussed.

Fumigant toxicity of four plant essential oils (muguet flower, patchouli, pennyroyal, spearmint) were tested against the adults of westem flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis. Among them, pennyroyal and spearmint oils showed 100% mortality at 1 ㎕/45 ㎖ air dose. Through the constituent analysis using GC and GC-MS, we confirmed that main constituents of pennyroyal oil were pulegone(100.0%), and spearmint oil were β-myrcene(3.5%), limonene(12.1%), carvone(85.4%). Among them, carvone and pulegone showed 100% fumigation at 1 ㎕/45 ㎖ air dose, respectively. It can concluded that two oils aloe potential control agents against F. occidentalis.