Feeding Toxicity of Insecticides to Western Pine Beetle, 1977

Feeding tests of the toxicity of 10 insecticides were conducted with adult western pine beetle collected from ponderosa pine bolts and bark gathered at Oakhurst, California. The toxicants were mixed in an artificial diet into which the beetles were placed. Five concentrations of each insecticide were serially diluted with acetone from stock solutions prepared for each of 3 replications of the study. Ten ml of hot artificial diet were placed in each 1 oz plastic jelly cup and packed firmly. Two hundred μl of toxicant were added and the diet was thoroughly stirred. After the diet cooled, it was chopped so that burrowing spaces were available to the beetles. Ten beetles were placed in each cup and a paper lid was used for closure. Mortality was tallied after 3 days.