La Evaluación del control biológico de Spodoptera frugiperda en el cultivo de maíz: Control biológico de Spodoptera frugiperda

Abstract

Corn is important grain in human nutrition and raw material for the elaboration of balanced food products. It has been world-wide reported that the most aggressive plague insect is the cogollero worm (Spodoptera frugiperda) since it is considered a defoliator, consumes foliage and attack buds, causing gouging on the softest parts of leaves, slices stems and cobs causing irreversible damage. Thus, the seeking of alternative control agents such as Metarhizium anisopliae and Bacillus thuringiensis is of great interest. The present study is mainly focused on evaluating the control action of fungus Metarhizium anisopliae, bacteria Bacillus thuringiensis, and their interactions to control Spodoptera frugiperda. It was applied the fully randomized blocks design with factorial arrangement 3 plus one absolute control for a total of 10 treatments and 3 replicates to hybrid Dekalb 7088. The results showed that there was not interaction between the factors under study, but there was statistical incidence between the factors. The best insecticide efficacy was attained by Bacillus thuringiensis with 3 and 5 cc/l; and Metarhizium anisopliae with 3cc/l attained the best performance in variables such as height of the plant, weight and production kg/ha of the cobs. The biological products applied, showed their control effect in Spodoptera frugiperda larvae populations.