| Abstrakt: |
Maize is an important staple crop that accounts for about half the dietary calories in many Sub-Saharan Africa, including Ghana. It is produced in mass quantities and must be stored for future sale or consumption, but maize weevils infest it during storage. Farmers use inorganic insecticides, which are effective but pose many health and environmental risks. To mitigate this situation, plant-based insecticides which are organic have been proposed. The aim of this work was to evaluate the effectiveness of plant powders as organic insecticides. Plant powders of Moringa oleifera leaves and Citrus sinensis were assessed for their toxicity to Sitophilus zeamais. The ability of the plant powders to protect maize grains from the weevils was assessed in terms of mortality rates after 24 to 96 h of post-treatment, percentage grain weight loss and damage, and progeny emergence. The various treatment levels for plant powders and grains were 5, 10, 15, and 20 g/g, and betallic insecticide as a standard and negative control. These powders were all effective against weevils. C. sinensis powder at 20 g/g caused the highest mortality (96.7%) at 96 h, while moringa leaf powder caused a mortality of 93.3%. The lowest percentage of weight loss (1.3%) was caused by citrus peel powder at 20 g/g, followed by the 15 g/g (6.7%), and moringa powder at 20 g/g gave 9.3% weight loss. C. sinensis powder reduced seed damage to 12.3% at 20 g/g, whereas moringa at 20 g/g reduced damage to 17.3%. There was no emergence (0.0%) at a treatment of 20 g/g of C. sinensis powder, but moringa at 20 g/g limited emergence to 1.3%. Even though the two powders (organic insecticides) were effective, C. sinensis powder was more effective in limiting the activity of maize weevils, hence, an excellent alternative to inorganic insecticides against S. zeamais. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR] |
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