For a beginning, the method of application could have influenced the effectiveness of the bio-pesticides on the pest bagworms defoliators. Aerial spraying helping to spread the product unilaterally with heavier direct impact on the tree canopies and palm frond rachis & leaflets. The time and period of the day for application is important too since those fungi are heat sensitive. Those plantations of oil palm trees are in high temperature areas that could reach 44 degree Celsius. It is the case of peat soils. Thanks a lot for giving me feedback.

My apologies as I am unfamiliar with the location and system. Could there be differences in humidity decrease or rate of temperature increase after application between the two canopy heights? If humidity is an issue, an alternative carrier formulation may help.

Dear Simon Springate,

This is in Malaysia and Indonesia, (close to Thailand & Singapore)in South East Asia, two biggest world producers of oil palms by over 80% of total production. It is a typical tropical climate, with micro-climatic conditions occurring often within 500m - 1 km radius. By average the temperatures range goes from 23 to 35 degree Celcius in normal conditions. On peat soils plantations, i have recorded as high as 45 degree celcius during 24 hours recording repeatedly for my experiments. The relative humidity (RH %) ranges from 60% - 97%. Yes indeed humidity is an issue, once the heat is there, the dry environmental conditions will make the fungal sporulation less effective. It shows less activity, thus less mortality effect on pest defoliators like the bagworms. In those plantations, they use cypermethrin which is broad spectrum long range contact pesticides harmful to all types of insects with long period of residual sub lethal side effects persistently.

For an integrated pest management alternative, fungi isolates from dead insects of all instars, pupae or adults, soils and leafs provide good potential virulent strains of entomopathogenic fungi.

The time of application need to be selective, i suggest late evening before sunset, giving more than half of day for fungal spores to develop towards next morning.

But that is not enough practically for tall trees by repeated experimental testings.

Thus my suggestion also of aerial heavy spraying.

This has been done only for Bt successfully by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board scientists with heavy mortality results.

The fungal preparation need an upgrade and optimisation by bio-reactors fermentation for a massive production, since we have large plantations.

The aim would be to obtain from this 25-30% mortality, an increase to more than 70% would be satisfactory to break the life cycle of the pests from one generation only. Lately, a massive release of predators would add to that system of control without dependence on conventional pesticides.

If anyone can suggest as you said "an alternative carrier formulation may help", please you can inbox me only in private. If you have the technology, we can discuss business seriously...([email protected]). Thanks a lot.

is arial application an option or only on experimental basis ? In Canada, arial application of Bt kurstaki is standard for protection of pine forest. formulations are optimized for reduced rain off and proper droplet size (compromize between drift off and spreading as many droplets as possible from a given volume)

Thanks Ole Skovmand for your answer. These are large plantations 1000 ha, 3000 ha, 5000 ha etc... aerial treatment is a must with complete outbreaks, for prevention as well to avoid potential occurrences on already low occupancy areas. A virulent strains of Bt has been successfully used by the Malaysian Palm Oi Board (MPOB), aerial method. Fungi can penetrate the insect cuticles, while Bt need to be ingested...the height of the trees sound to be a technical issue. The fungal preparation can not afford to become dry too fast, so detrimental to strains virulence and lethal action on pest bagworm defoliators of those tall oil palm trees (> 8-10 m). Well would be nice to have more technical infos on those formulations done with Bt Kurstaki in Canada. Thanks. Pierre (Martinique French Island near Miami Florida)

What kind of formulation do you currently use? Is it water or oil based? Oil based formulations are easier for aerial control, because you need less volume (typically 1-2 liters per ha). On the other hand, oil based formulations work less well with relatively immobile insects, like scales etc. Does your insect move around sufficiently to pick up spores from the vegetation? If so, I would try an oil formulation. Since you will be spraying tree canopies, you may have to increase the spray volume to 4 or 5 liters per ha.

Thanks a lot Christiaan Kooyman.

This is the same idea that we have. Both formulation have been tried already...yes the larval stage moves relatively a lot...they just walk fast compare to others defoliators worms by morphology...The species i was working on are the fastest. and smallest..Pteroma pendula (short life cycle of 45 days average in field).. these are indigenous species found only in Malaysia and Indonesia oil palm fields.

But you need to know that species P. pendula is also the most classified polyphagous world wide. It is reported that P. pendula exhibits an extensive range of host plants amounting to more than 30 species (Ahmad & Ho, 1980; Norman et al., 1994).

Moreover, some of these hosts are forest trees like Mahogany, making the interest of this study more pertinent.

During my study in field plantations, i have personally witnessed the process of airplane spraying with a new strain of Bt done by the Malaysian Palm Oil Board MPOB, it takes skills to do that indeed.

The pilot had to go down so close to the tree canopies to release the product preparation for an effective treatment.

I believe the Bt spraying in volume would not be similar to the fungal preparation volume per ha.

Hi Pierrre.

Ok, it's good that you tried water and oil formulations. Can I ask what oil you used and was it with or without adjuvants? It's possible that the palm growers would not like you to use diesel, but it's what we use with our locust control product. Since the volume rate is 1-2 L/ha, no traces of diesel can found after one day. Its advantages are its low cost and wide availability. We have also used Jet-A1, but one needs to add 20-30% vegetable oil to increase viscosity. On its own, it evaporates too quickly and leads to bad results.

Further, the eco-toxicity of broad spectrum long range contact (bslrc) like cypermethrin used for controlling palm defoliators kills 100% of beneficial

insects & palm weevil Elaidobius kamerunicus pollinators as early as 1 day after treatment with a dose of 5% a.i.

Effect of MPOB Bacillus thuringiensis products on beneficial insects (Ahmad et al, 2009 - Journal of Oil Palm Research Elaeis, 21:667-674), against oil palm pollinator (Ahmad et al, 2012 - Journal of Oil Palm Research Elaeis 24:1440-1445) , and beneficial insects associated with Cassia cobanensis such as Sycanus dichotomus, Dolichogenidea metesae, Goryphus bunoh, Brachymeria carinata with a dose 7.3x10 over 11cfu/ml, on fresh water fish Tilapia nilotica (Ahmad et al, 2011 - Journal of Oil Palm Research, Elaeis), have shown zero to low mortality %.

Those clinical effects on the Sprague-dawley rats were recorded nil after 14 days of treatment with a dose of 5,000mg/kg, while cypermethrin at 5% a.i gave 100% mortality.

Entomopathogenic fungal preparations have a promising impact in the industry of Oil palms with the right formulations.

Merci Christiaan Kooyman,

Ok, right between the consideration of the cost & effectiveness as the use of diesel fuel, for a product like palm oils fats who has already wide negative critics from my own country France and the USA; i do not think it is a good idea at first sight.

Unless you convince me of analyses that there was no ecological effects on non target taxa insects. The fact that no traces of the fuel is there does not prove that there were no negative effects on the ecosystem at all for a wider range in the plantation surfaces like 1000 -5000 ha or more.

How big are your crops plantations compare to those oil palm fields?

The jet A1 sound costly right?

I have my own idea now on what to use for this...(top secret).

You can further mail me please at [email protected] (some ideas are confidential at this moment). It is an experimental stage only. Those Bacillus thuringiensis products as i mentioned in a previous comment with citations provided are the ownership of the Malaysian government with the Malaysian Palm Oil Board (MPOB).

Merci beaucoup confrere Suisse de Geneve Christiaan Kooyman.

Pierre ( Martinique French Caribbean Island near Miami Florida USA)

My aim like many of those scientists from MPOB, is to find a better sustainable integrated pest management system.

I m conducting at this time study on the biodiversity of all insects, mostly ants with an eminent world taxonomist from Japan Kagoshima University Prof Sensei Dr Seiki Yamane and University Okinawa the Ryukyus Japan Prof Sensei Dr Kazuki (Mizuki) Tsuji. Our earlier results are showing that the total species number are still satisfactory and high.

It shows somehow, that oil palm plantations did not destroy all biodiversity as claim by some western media and the like...

So with multidisciplinary contribution of scientists, engineers, technicians, workers, students and many more, a lot of services can be given to better quality products for the betterment of society...

My current work is being done at the University Malaya plantations UM plantations Sdn.Bhd at Johor Bahru Kota Tinggi Sg Arah in the state of Johor south Malaysia (close to Singapore) with the help of Japan special grant under those two eminent academicians Prof Seiki & Prof kazuki & University Malaya research grant UMRG - RG187/12SUS.

Another important aspect you need to remember in Integrated pest management in large crop production like oil palms or any...

You can not just simply apply biopesticides used for forests protection against defoliators to shift them directly to agricultural products industry.

For crops like this, we still depend on the natural enemies, entomopathogenic fungi, predators& parasitoids, thus we need to be sure that this diesel is really harmless to all. The need to conduct also bioassays on the weevil pollinator Elaeidobius kamerunicus and others beneficial insects is a must.

No techno would be acceptable to the industry as long as that these hurdles has not been cleared and proven that no side effects is expected on them.

In fact if that was the case, it would outweigh the benefit of suppressing pest defoliators, by bringing another problem and having finally a lesser yield production still.

Your post surprises me a bit. You seem to talk about "biopesticides" in the widest possible sense, including e.g. plant extracts. To most of us, biopesticides contain entomopathogens and are therefore part of the natural enemies that you mention. Or are you concerned about diluents and adjuvants? Serious biopesticide producers would not use any that had serious environmental effects. As a matter of fact, many products contain inert substances, like talc and kaolin, and/or compounds that are also used in the food industry. Most mineral oils that are used are not inherently more dangerous than vegetable oils, in fact quite the contrary. Moreover, oil formulations are used in such small volumes that any effects are very unlikely. I can't quite imagine the effect of 0,1-0,2 ml of oil per m². Diesel is simply a mixture of mineral oils with chain lengths of between 8 and 21 carbon atoms. True, diesel from the pump does usually contain impurities and adjuvants, but their percentages are fractal or at most single digit. So even the most common are applied at a rate not exceeding 0,005 ml/m². And in your case, we are essentially talking about a three-dimensional system, so the rate becomes 0,0005 ml/m³ for the most voluminous adjuvant. You will have to spray very often to be able to measure any impact. In fact, the bad name of diesel comes from its combustion. But you can hardly compare the impact of thousands of cars belching out exhaust gases and PM2.5 particles every day to the occasional spraying of an oil palm canopy.

Yes you have some major points here. But keep in mind that we are talking of food stuff here, agricultural product. All methods have advantages and disadvantages.

The safer it is to natural enemies and to the human population in the vicinity of oil palm plantations, cause those plantations are not isolated from rural people and etc.

There are still more considerations to take into account. You are certainly aware of enforcement laws on microbial products usage. Laboratory and pilot testing is fine. When it comes to an application on a large scale, the implications are not similar.

Your input is valuable, nevertheless safety assessment on all those non taxa insects, fauna is necessary when a new formulation is being proposed as a standard for safety, regardless of what we think and claim: it is all evidence based and not i think that... the amount is small thus harmless...

That is the difference from an artisan trial with a multidisciplinary scientific team looking at all aspects and possibilities.

Thanks a lot for your valuable input again. I shall come back on this issue again.

All of what you are saying is true of course, but I wonder why you write it as a reply to my post. Or is it meant for general consumption? I get the impression that you think I am talking about an experimental product and formulation developed by a bunch of scientists who do not know the real world. This product has been thoroughly tested and is registered in many countries. It has been used on tens of thousands of hectares without any sign of serious environmental impact. As a matter of fact, it is preferentially used in highly sensitive areas, while chemical insecticides are still being used elsewhere. And as far as multidisciplinary scientific teams are concerned, you might want to read the wikipedia article on https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/LUBILOSA about the project that developed this product.

Yes it is meant specially for general consumption since students from different field are also interested in this cause it is about what they eat at the end of the day.

This is the benefit of the discussion indeed. Thanks a lot again for your contribution to my question. I m going to view that. Cooperation is indeed of great help.

Merci Christiaan

The main way to enhance the efficiency of any pest control practices (chemical insecticides, biopesticides, plant extracts, an so on...) that requires spraying of tall trees is to improve the field application techniques. The main concern regards this point I could say is due to the lack in the market of adequate application EQUIPMENTS, which, could allows the particles sprayed to reach the right target on plant cannopy. Platforms, built over the sprayer tank or the tractor, usually are developed within the big plantations, accordingly to their own needs, in order to protect tall palms from pest attacks. To enhance any product efficience (chemical, biological or natural) in the field, it will be necessary, first of all, to stimulate the industry to develop adequate, safe and viable equipaments, to attend the palm trees growers, throughout the world.

The neutral soap (handwashing soap) is a good adjuvant to be added to oil formulation of B. bassiana and M anisopliae during the conidia suspension preparation. The conidia virulence are preserved in presence of it.

Thanks a lot for your contribution Joana Ferreira, but in this case, it is preferentially done by aerial airplane spraying, not from ground by tank or tractor. The pest species concerned here have a short life cycle history of around 45 days, with 8 to 9 rotations per year. It is an indigenous dominant bagworms in Malaysia which does exist also in Indonesia called Pteroma pendula. Another one is Metisa plana with a longer period of time for life cycle (3 months approx).

I thought of certain adjuvant like shampoo and some powerful essential oil that i can not mention here the name.

The issue of preservation of lethal ability in fungal product is paramount. The formulation of such bio-pesticides need specific adjuvants that would protect efficiently the conidia from the heat by some isolation effect, from those temperature increase which is in our case from peat soil. In peat soil, temperatures monitored by digital device readers had shown a peak up to 47 degree Celsius by 13:00 h - 14.30 h.

The time of the treatment thus is another factor that also should be taken into consideration, similarly as crops growers would do in particular for lettuce and others salads sprayed with water.

Pierre (Martinique French Island near Miami Florida USA)