Abstract            Volume:8  Issue-4  Year-2020         Original Research Articles

Online ISSN : 2347 - 3215 Issues : 12 per year Publisher : Excellent Publishers Email : editorijcret@gmail.com

The maize stem borer (Buseola fusca) is a devastating pest of maize causing up to 100% yield loss in Ethiopia. Biological control can be an important component of maize stem borer integrated pest management. Thirteen Beauveria bassiana and fourteen Metarhizium anisopliae isolates of native entomopathogenic fungi (EPF) were evaluated for their potential as biological control agents against the maize stem borer under laboratory and pot culture. In the first screening, a single dose of conidial suspension containing 1x10⁸ conidia per ml of each isolate was used to inoculate 10 B. fusca larvae. Selected isolates from both spp. were then tested for dose-response using three conidial concentrations (1 × 10⁷, 1 × 10⁸ and 1 × 10⁹ conidia/ml). Furthermore, one isolate from each of the Metarhizium and Beauveria spp. which induced the highest mortality at the highest concentration and was tested in pot culture under lath house conditions. A completely randomized design and a randomized complete block design with three replications were used for the laboratory and pot experiments respectively.  Three M. anisopliae isolates (PPRC-51, PPRC2, M1) and a B. bassiana isolate (B1) caused significantly higher (p = 0.0001) percentage mortality (87%, 70%, 87% and 87% respectively). In a dose-response test, isolates M1 and B1 showed significantly higher mortality (100%) within 72hrs at a concentration of 1x 109conidia/ml and were tested in the lath house pot experiment. Results in the first pot experiment showed that M1, B1 and Karte 5% EC caused 49%, 48%, 76% mortality in ten days significantly differing from the untreated check (p = 0.004) and in second experiment M1, B1 and Karte 5% EC caused 49%, 48%, 76% mortality in fifteen days significantly differing from the untreated check (p = 0.037) while being at par with each other. Further tests are recommended to verify the promising results under field conditions.

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