Studies on side effects of some insecticides on aphid-feeding Coccinellidae in Emilia-Romagna fruit crops

The effects of six insecticides on adults of the aphidophagous coccinellids Adalia bipunctata (L.), Coccinella septempunctata (L.) and Oenopia conglobata (L.), were evaluated in field studies in apple, pear and peach orchards. The insecticides (and some of their different formulations) evaluated were the organophosphates (OP) chlorpyrifos, chlorpyrifos-methyl, azinphos-methyl and malathion, the carbamate derived Methomyl and the Nereistoxin analogues Cartap. Azinphos-methyl was consistently toxic to coccinellids with between 76% and 90.5% mortality occurring in four studies. Chlorpyrifos EC resulted in mortality ranging from 40.2% (apples,1999) to 63% (peach,2001) over five studies. Chlorpyrifos WDG mortality ranged from 50.8% to 70% over three studies. Chlorpyrifos-methyl resulted in 31% mortality in apples in 1999 and 86.1% mortality in pears in 1998. Methomyl and cartap were evaluated in a single study in apples and resulted in 66.7 and 10% mortality respectively. Malathion was evaluated in a separate study and caused 43.5% mortality.