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Essential Oils as Eco-friendly Alternatives to Synthetic Pesticides for the Control of Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)

Abstract The article presents the potential of essential oils (EOs) as plant based pesticides against Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (red flour beetle), a cosmopolitan secondary insect pest of stored food products. Different EOs have been reported to date for their contact and fumigant toxicities, repellency and oviposition deterrence, adult emergence inhibition, ovicidal, larvicidal, pupicidal and antifeedant activities against T. castaneum but only limited numbers of them have been commercialized for protection of stored foods from insect pest infestation. Plant EOs exhibit insect growth regulatory activity, working as behavior altering semiochemicals. Such botanicals can be recommended as eco-friendly alternatives in view of frequent development of resistance in pests after application of different synthetic pesticides. EO based pesticides can play promising roles in integrated pest management over the synthetics that have mostly insecticidal approach. In view of their favorable safety profile with mammalian systems, they may be recommended as a biorational strategy in integrated management of infestations and losses of stored food commodities caused by red flour beetle. The article recommends nanoencapsulation technology to enhance the efficacy of EOs against storage insect pests and to overcome the limitations.