Cabbage is one of the most widely grown winter vegetables worldwide. A wide range of insect pests attacks it, resulting in yield losses. Farmers used to use synthetic insecticides to produce damage-free cabbage heads. The present study aimed to evaluate the potential of entomopathogenic fungus, Beauveria bassiana on the management control of economic insect pests of cabbage and compare it with effect of traditional insecticides at two locations cultivated with cabbage in Egypt.
Four insect species were surveyed; the most common pests of cabbage are; onion thrips, Thrips tabaci, cabbage white butterfly, Pieris rapae, diamondback moth, Plutella xylostella and cabbage aphid, Brevicoryne brassicae. The results showed that T. tabaci was the most dominant pest. By the end of the season, the mean population of T. tabaci reached 39.72±6.2 and 7.68±1.2 larvae, adults/plant in the Giza, 45.44±8.27 and 2.68±2.8 larvae, adults/plant in the El-Menoufia on plants treated with insecticides and B. bassiana, respectively.
After applying B. bassiana, the populations of P. rapae and P. xylostella became less than the threshold. But in insecticides plots, the population of P. rapae reached 3.52±1.23 and 2.36±1.35 larvae/plant and P. xylostella reached 1.72±1.28 and 2.64±1.03 larvae, pupae/plant in Giza and El-Menoufia, respectively.
The results showed that B. bassiana effectively controlled the major insect pests of cabbage, T. tabaci, P. rapae, P. xylostella, and B. brassicae at both study sites.
Beauveria bassiana as a biological control agent can be recommended as a good pest management practice against some of the economic cabbage pests in the field.