Óleos essenciais no controle do pulgão verde (Myzus persicae Sulzer, 1776) em repolho

Abstract

The cabbage is a vegetable grown worldwide and has great economic importance for Brazil, but like any other crop, has insect pests that negatively affect its production. Among the main pests of cabbage, we can highlight the green aphid, which usually attacks young leaves causing weakening and leaf wilting. Pest control is commonly done through chemical methods, which can cause damage to the environment and humans, however, the search for alternative pest methods is essential. The use of essential oils for this control is a relevant strategy to consider, since oils are natural products extracted from plants and may have toxic activity and insect repellency. In this context, the experiments were carried out in the biological control laboratory and greenhouse of UTFPR campus Two neighbors, aiming to evaluate the toxicity of pitanga, patchouli and jasmine essential oils in green aphid. For the experiment, we used cabbage leaves approximately 40 days old, where they were submerged in the essential oil solutions of pitanga, patchouli, jasmine and the controls water, water + tween and untreated leaves, placed naturally to dry in a flow cabinet. . Subsequently, the leaves were wrapped with damp cotton and aluminum foil to retard leaf shriveling. Then they were placed in plastic Petri dishes and 10 second instar nymphs of Myzus persicae were added, taken in BOD (25 ° C ± 2 ° C and Photoperiod 12/12 hs). The experimental design was completely randomized with plots subdivided in time. We also compared the cumulative death averages of mortality by summing the mortality that occurred over the three days. All means passed the normality test, where they were considered normal and compared to the Tukey test at 5% probability. Insect mortality was evaluated during 24, 48 and 72 hours. The results of this work demonstrate the potential of essential oils in the control of green aphid, requiring further research that may consider other variables such as crop phonological stage, greenhouse and field conditions, as well as ways of application of the oils and possible associations.