Dear Dr. Jacinter Otieno,

First I think you should evaluate the compatibility of azadirachtin and the microrganisms in the laboratoty, before using the insects. You can consult this paper to get guidance: "Potential of Entomopathogenic Fungi as Biological Control Agents of Diamondback Moth (Lepidoptera: Plutellidae) and Compatibility With Chemical Insecticides."

Second, I think you need to conduct your assays at least in greenhouse, because azadirachtin is very sensitive to sunlight. Nowadays we have some studies on microencapsulation of neem, what can help prevent neem/azadirachtin degradation. In soil it can help releasing neem more slowly, improving neem residual.

I hope it helps you.

With kind regards,

Eduardo

Thanks for your response, the Azadirachtin formulation used here was a water based formulation which was compatible with all the biocontrol agents used. Most interactions with azadirachtin were either additive or synergistic.

Thanks

Dear Jacinter,

The problem that could occurs is fact that Azadirachtin can cause mal formation in adults and reduced reproduction of Heteroptera predators..

Regads,

José Zanuncii

Thanks ..meaning there is need to investigate long term effect of azadirachtin on the predator ..though several studies have pointed out that they have no effect on Orius because the predators are adults and their effect as a muolting disruptor can't affect orius. Thanks

Hello Dear Jacinter

I study the compatability of Beauveria with some plant extractions such as Azadirakhtin

 I had carrid some experiment for study intraction between Beauveria as a pathogen and Cephalonomia as a parasitoid. The results are very interesting. Please see my publication. They maybe useful. Thanks

Yes, I will read it, there are many publications stating negative effect of Beaveria Bassiana on other bio-control agents especially predators and parasitoids, hence for my work it was only used for the first part of the work and based on this and other issues with efficacy further work was based on Metarhizium anisopliae ICIPE-69 strain which performed quite well giving additive and synergistic interaction effect with S. carpocapsae (EPN) and Orius laevigatus (predator)