TY - JOUR AU - Abdel Ghan, Sherif B. AU - Al-Azzazy, Mahmoud PY - 2022/08/25 Y2 - 2024/03/28 TI - The miticidal activity of silver nanoparticles towards phytophagous and predatory mites of citrus: efficacy and selectivity JF - Emirates Journal of Food and Agriculture JA - Emir J Food Agric VL - 34 IS - 6 SE - Research Article DO - 10.9755/ejfa.2022.v34.i6.2888 UR - https://ejfa.me/index.php/journal/article/view/2888 SP - AB - <p>o beyond bioassays within laboratory or growth chambers. Few studies have investigated the miticidal activity of SNP, mostly against <br>Tetranychus urticae Koch (Acari: Tetranychidae). Despite the promising preliminary results, field evaluation of miticidal activity towards <br>both pest and non-target organisms are still lacking. SNP were chemically synthesized utilizing trisodium citrate in excess and then miticidal <br>activity was tested against phytophagous and predatory mites in trifoliate orange (Citrus trifoliata L.). A commercial formulation of Bifenthrin <br>was used as reference. In laboratory, SNP showed slightly higher miticidal activity, than bifenthrin with LC50 of 29.3, 43.9 and 27.4 mg/l <br>in SNP and 43.3, 38.9 and 31.6 mg/l in bifenthrin with efficiency factor of 1.5, 0.9 and 1.2 for P. oleivora, E. orientalis and B. obovatus, <br>respectively. In case of SNP, it showed lower toxicity than bifenthrin towards predatory mites with LC50 of 789.9 and 656.0 mg/l in SNP <br>and 48.2 and 45.5 mg/l in bifenthrin for P. oleivora, E. orientalis, and B. obovatus, respectively, with safety factor of 14 to 16 times for <br>A. swirskii and P. plumifer, respectively. While in the field, LC50 values of SNP were 25.4, 36.0 and 27.0 mg/l while bifenthrin values were <br>39.2, 39.9, 29.7 mg/l for P. oleivora, E. orientalis and B. obovatus, respectively. SNP showed highly selective toxicity (23 times at LC50) <br>towards phytophagous than predatory mites (P= 0.0001), whereas bifenthrin showed no selectivity (P= 0.750). Moreover, residues of <br>SNP provided a 14-days prolonged activity against infesting mites. Exhibiting high selectivity towards the phytophagous mites, residues <br>of SNP slightly affected the predatory ones. SNP showed comparable efficacy to bifenthrin for control of moving stages of P. oleivora, <br>E. orientalis and B. obovatus mites and surpassed bifenthrin in ovicidal activity and saving associated predatory mites. SNP may be utilized <br>for control of P. oleivora, E. orientalis, and B. obovatus mites in orange.</p> ER -