Comparative efficacy of some insecticides against purple scale insect, Lepidosaphes beckii (Hemiptera: Coccoidea) and its parasitoid in citrus orchard in Egypt.

Five insecticide compounds Azadirachtin (Nimbecidine ® ); Pyriproxyfen (Admiral ® ); Acetamiprid (Mospilan ® ); Emamectin benzoate (Proclaim ® ) and summer mineral oil (star oil ® ) and their mixtures were evaluated for controlling the purple scale insect, Lepidosaphes beckii (Newman) (Hemiptera: Diaspididae) as well as its parasitoid Aphytis lepidosaphes Compere (Hymenoptera: Aphelinidae) on growing citrus orchard, Citrus sinensis L. (Rutacea). This work has been carried out in the experimental farm of faculty of agriculture, Sabahia, Alexandria, Egypt, during two successive seasons 2009 and 2010. The obtained results revealed that star oil ® in combination with Admiral ® and Nimbecidine ® have given the highest reduction (%) values for L. beckii and its parasitoid, A. lepidosaphes during the two experimentally years. In 2009, the calculated reduction % values for L. beckii and A. lepidosaphes were (99.78 and 99.50%) and (96.75 and 97.29%), whereas in 2010 were (99.73 and 99.34%) and (94.40 and 96.46%) for the two combinations, respectively. On the other hand (Mospilan ® ) and (Proclaim ®) show less reduction percentages to the parasitoid during the two successive years. Whereas in 2009 were 54.56 and 73.19 %, in 2010 were 43.47 and 71.25 %, respectively.