Effect of Fungicide, Salicylic Acid, Henna Powder and Propolis on Silkworm Larvae Infected with Aspergillus spp.

Abstract

Mulberry silkworm, Bombyx mori L. is in-fected with many diseases. In this work, two fungi species, Aspergillus fumigatus and As-pergillus flavus, were isolated from the in-fected B. mori larvae during rearing process. The morphological symptoms were the same for both fungi and appeared from newly hatched larvae until moth formation. In larvae, black spots of both fungi species appeared eve-rywhere on the body, then these spots extended and eventually larvae died, and fragments of the fungus came out from the spots. The only one difference between the two fungi, is that symptoms of A. fumigatus appeared four days earlier than those of A. flavus. Newly hatched larvae were sprayed with spore suspension (1x106 conidia spores/ml) of A. fumigates and A. flavus separately. One and 12 hrs. after in-oculation, larvae were sprayed with different concentrations of fungicide (Actamyl), sali-cylic acid, and henna and propolis powders, in isolation. After words, mortality and survival percentages were calculated and compared to those that occurred in untreated check (larvae were inoculated with A. fumigatus and A. fla-vus separately without any control treatment). The lowest mortality and highest survival per-centage were occurred in larvae treated with salicylic acid at 10% after 12 hrs. from inocu-lation with A. fumigatus. On the other hand, the lowest mortality and highest survival percent-ages occurred in larvae treated with the fungi-cide Actamyl at 6% and henna at 15% after 12 hrs. from inoculation with A. flavus.