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ORIGINAL RESEARCH article

Front. Insect Sci.
Sec. Invasive Insect Species
Volume 5 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/finsc.2025.1468262
This article is part of the Research Topic Invaders and Guardians: When Nature Itself Tackles the Threat of Invasive Insects View all articles

Sustainable control of the bird cherry-oat aphid (Rhopalosiphum padi L.) in northwestern Ontario using Beauveria bassiana delivered by bumblebees

Provisionally accepted
Morel Lbère KOTOMALE Morel Lbère KOTOMALE 1,2,3*Jean Pierre Kapongo Jean Pierre Kapongo 1,2,3Alphonsine Muzinga Bin Lubusu Alphonsine Muzinga Bin Lubusu 1,3Romuald Simo Nana Romuald Simo Nana 1,3Donald Rostand Fopie Tokam Donald Rostand Fopie Tokam 1,3Grace Suzert Nottin Mboussou Grace Suzert Nottin Mboussou 1,3
  • 1 Collège Boréal, Greater Sudbury, Canada
  • 2 Applied Research Centre for Biodiversity, Sudbury, Canada
  • 3 Agricultural department, Sudbury, Canada

The final, formatted version of the article will be published soon.

    Rhopalosiphum padi is one of the main vectors of barley yellow dwarf virus (BYDV), which affects the grain yield of oats. Several biological control strategies have been studied to control this pest, one of which is Bee Vectoring Technology (BVT) using bumblebees.We tested the efficacy of Beauveria bassiana, as vectored by bumblebees, and a direct spray application of neem (a natural bio-insecticide derived from the Azadirachta indica tree) on aphids. An assessment of the pest's impact on the plots surveyed in northwestern Ontario revealed incidence rates of 80%. The use of bumblebees as a dispersal agent of B. bassiana significantly reduced the aphid population (0.542 ± 0.147b) compared to the untreated control (0.125 ± 0.069a). The application of diluted neem also showed a reduction in the aphid population (0.708 ± 0.221a). Although the products used controlled the pests, they had no effect on the aphid's natural enemy, the ladybug. Therefore, the dissemination of B. bassiana by the bumblebee Bombus impatiens leads to a decrease in the vector Rhopalosiphum padi population and consequently reduces the severity of barley yellow dwarf disease in oat fields.

    Keywords: Entomovectoring, Beauveria bassiana, biocontrol of aphids, Bumblebees, natural enemies, bioinsecticide

    Received: 21 Jul 2024; Accepted: 03 Feb 2025.

    Copyright: © 2025 KOTOMALE, Kapongo, Lubusu, Simo Nana, Fopie Tokam and Mboussou. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.

    * Correspondence: Morel Lbère KOTOMALE, Collège Boréal, Greater Sudbury, Canada

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