Effect of Beauveria bassiana fungus on the boxelder and red shouldered bugs (Hemiptera: Rhopalidae)

Laboratory studies were initiated to assay the efficacy of BioCide-TRF(TM) (Mycotrol GH-ES) Beauveria bassiana Vuill. on two nuisance pests of the family Rhopalidae that frequently take winter protection in and around urban and suburban buildings. Micro-application treatments (2.5 μl droplet) of 6.5 x 10⁵ conidia per insect, applied to the dorsal prothorax of the red shouldered bug, Jadera haematoloma (Herrich-Schaeffer), provided 100% control of adults in 8 d with 84% of the dead bugs expressing mycelia in that time period. Lower dosages did not provide significant mortality at 5 d, but by 8 d, 32-40% control was provided by the 4.0 x 10⁴ and 1.6 x 10⁵ conidia treatments. All adults of the boxelder bug, Boisea trivittatus (Say), exposed to treated leaves and seeds with the 1:100 dilution dose of Beauveria were killed within 7 d and 66.7% of the dead bugs expressed mycelia within 8 d. Significant mortality (83.3, 76.7 and 73.3%) was also provided by the 1:300, 1:500 and 1:1,000 dilution rates, respectively. This race of B. bassiana shows promise for control of both of these annual nuisance pests.