Structure and Toxicity of Insecticide Deposits for Control of Bark Beetles
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1.0 1.0 1.1 1.1 I 111111.25 111111.4 111111.6 111111.25 111111.4 11111 1.6 MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART MICROCOPY RESOLUTION TEST CHART NATIONAL BUREAU Of STANDARDS-1963·.\ NATIONAL BUREAU Of STANDARDS·1963-A Structure and Toxicity of Insecticide Deposits lor Control 0/ Bark Beetles By ROBERT L. LYON, Entomologist Pacific Southwest Forest and Range Experiment Station Forest Service, U.S. Department of Agriculture, Berkeley, Calif. Technical Bulletin No. 1343 U.S. Department of Agriculture Forest Service October 1965 ACKNOWLEDGMENT The author is grateful to the University of Ca~ifornia and the National Park Servicefor specin.1 materials and services i the late Charles B. Eaton, Forest Service, and Dr. 'V. M. Hoskin£, University of California, for their invaluable counsel; R. W. Bushing for 11is assistance during most of t.he study, especially in developing test. equipment; and J. R. Batchelder, ·W. D. Bedard, and B. D. Combs for their con tdbutions to the study. u CONTENTS Page Introduction____ ___ ___ ___ __ ___ ______ __ ___ __ _ __ __ _ __ _ __ _ _ 1 Litera.ture review _________________________ .. ___ ___ __ __ _ __ _ 1 Preventive controL _______ ____ __ __ _ _ __ __ __ __ __ __ _ ___ ___ 2 Remedial controL __________________________________ . _ _ 4 Laboratory studies ___________________________________ • 5 Deposit structure and toxicity__________________________ 6 Structure and toxicity of deposits_________________________ 19 Procedures_____ --____________________________________ 19 Effect of fu!l1igation________________ ___________________ 23 Effect of dose._ __ ____ _ __ _ _ _ __ __ ____ __ __ _ _ _ _ ______ __ __ _ 27 Effect of concentratiol1__ ______________________________ 36 Effect of solvonL_____________________________________ 38 Effect of moisture content of substrate___________________ 39 Effect of wen,thering___________________________________ 40 Tests with caged bolts__________________________________ 46 Procedure____________________________________________ 46 Results________ __ _ _ __ __ _ _ ____ _____ __ _____ _____________ 49 Discussion__________________________________ .____ __ ___ 51 Summary and conclusions_ __ _ __ ______ _____ _____ __ ___ __ __ _ 52 Literature cited__ ___ __ __ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ ______ ___ _ __ __ __ __ ____ __ _ 54 NOTE.-Insccticides are poisonous and should be used only when it is necessary. Improper handling or application of insecticides, or careless disposal of excess material, may be injurious to humans, domes tic animals, desirable insects, and fish or other wildlife, and may contaminate water supplies. Directions and precautions on manu facturers' labels must be followed. Department of AgricuJlUre policy is to practice and encourage use of means of pest control which present the least potential hazard to man and animals. When residual or persistent pesticides must be used under this policy, the minimal effective amounts are to be applied precisely to infested areas, at minimal effective frequency. The studies summarized and reported in this bulletin are helpful in determining minimal insecticide application dosages, concentrations, and frequencies. For sale by the Superintendent of Documents, U.S. Government Printing Office, Washington. D.C., 20402 - Price 25 cents. m INTRODUCTION In a typical year in the United States, the volume of sawtimber·size trees killed by bark beetles amounts to more than 4 billion board feet (110).1 This In.r~e t1 loss can severely damage the eeonomy in locali ties that depend on forest resources. Prot6cting trees from these in sects is becoming increasingly vital to successful forestry (11). Insecticides f'roe indispensable in forest protection. Penetrating sprays of ethyl(me dibromide in diesel oil or in (1 water emulsion have been used in chemical control of bark beetles in the 'West in recent years (86,70,71,103,11'7). The sprays are applied liberally to the bark surface, penetmte to the inner bark tissne,and kill the bark beetle brood in place. Though expensive, the method is effective for remedial control. It cannot be used for preventive control because ethylene dibromicle is a fum igant (mel has a shott residual life. Residual sprays appliNl to the hark surface in low volume may efIecti\'ely prev'enl bttt'k beetle attack on green, uninfested trees 2 and also offer much promise for improving remedial control. Residual sprays are formulated and applied so that they act in one or both of t\\·o ways. They penetrate the bark and kill the tmderlying brood or ileposit the insedkide on and near the surface w11ere an emerging adult insect may pick up a lethal close. Thus, the form of the insecti cide deposit on the bark influences the effectiveness of the spray. The aim of this study was to leam how to develop bark deposits of residual sprays that will destroy b(;th emerging beetles and those attack-ing trees ancllogs. Because the strueture of the deposit is crucial in cletetwininp: contact toxicity, 'we must kno'w what governs deposit structure and how to eontrol it. ,Yith this information, ,ye can leave the kind of deposit that will suppress the bark beetle most efficiently. This study WaS Cllrried out near Oakhurst, Calif., at the Millmi Field Laboratory of the Forest Service's Pacific Southwest Forest and Range }jxperiment Station. LITERATURE REVIEW 1V11en ('hlorinated hydrocarbon insecticides became commercially available, they were tested against bark beetles. In reviewing these Rtlldies, Moore 3 conduded that. residual insecticides showed good promise for bark beetle contl·o1. Milch of this early work was done by applying the insecticide to rnnofl'--a procedure similar to that nor mn,lly followed in the use of pen etrn.tmg sprays. :Moore envisl'oned fl. different. manner of ('ontrol with residual spra.ys. The insecticide would be sprayec1lightly on the outer bark surface only, and the adult t ltl1li(' numbers in parentheses refer 'to "T.Jiteratnre Oited," p. ;14. • MoorE', •.\.. D. StudlE';; on the toxicity of residual-type, organic insecticidE'S to bark beetles, with special emphasis on Ips COlltltSIIS (Lee.). 1956. (Un published Ph. D. thesis on file at the University of California, Berkeley, Calif.) • :\Ioore, op. oit. 1 2 TECHt'l'IC.-H. BULLETIN 1343, U.S. DEPT. OF AGRICULTURE bark beetle would contact it lethal dose as it emerged or attacked a new host. Published field studies of residualil1secticides for bark beetle con trol may be conveniently divided in two parts for review: (a) studies on preventive control and (b) studies on remedilll control. The control of ambrosia beetles also is re\'ie\\-ecl because they are closely related to hark beetles. PREVENTIVE CONTROL Oil solutions have received much attention as n, means for preventive control of bark beetles. For example, .Johnston (54) recommended :L O.5-percent gamma nne 4 solution in Xo. Z fuel oil to protect eastern hardwood and pille logs from nmbrosi,t and bark beetles. He got aileqllate protection for 3 to 4 months during the height of beetle activity when he applied the spray to runoff. Application of about 1 gttllOIl to 100 square feet of bark was sufficient for runoff to occur. Protection "-as improvcd when a. viscous oil, such as SAE 70 motor oi 1, was mixed with. the No.2 fuel oil at the rate of 1 part of viscous oil to 19 parts of fuel oil. In reviewing the iitnntul'e on bark beetles that. aired. southern pines, Thatcher (/08) indieated that O.~5- to O.5-percent gnmILtl BRC in fuel oil a.ppliecl to runoff was suc('esliful both as n. preventive and l'emec1 ial meaSUl'e. Smith {lOO) tested chloI'inatec1 hydrocarbons ill No.2 fuel oil for IH'otectiug fresh-cut illash pine stumps against the black turpentine beetle (Dendt'octonu8 tereb1'([n-~ (Oli\·.). Application was to runoff at the mte of 1 gallon oJ spmy to 40-50 square feet of bark. Sprays in order of decreasing effertiveness were: Concen tration Control (percent) (percent) Gamma Blle____ . ________________________________ _ Aldrin________________________ • ___________________ _ O. 5 96 Heptachlor _______________________________________ _ 2.0 95 Dieldrin__________________________________________ _ 1.0 76 1.0 75 5. 0 60 DDT____________________________________________ _ 2. 0 52 t~~id~~~~-:~====~======:======~=========:======:== 5.0 48 No.2 (ud oiL_____________________________________ _ 26 Oil alone provides proteetion against sonle bark beetles. Beckel' (/.1) found thtH saturating bark \\"lth No. 2 fuel oil or kerosene prevented elm bel'k beetles frol11 breeding. Rl1dinsky et a1. (96) applied a.j. to 6 mixture of refined kerosene and Velsicol AR50 5 to Douglas-fir' logs. Twenty weeks after spraying, there were 312 suc ressful attacks by Douglas-fir' beetle (Den(l1·octonu.~ 'PseudotS'lt,qae Hopk.) on the unspr'ayed check samples and only 11 on the sprayed ilampleil. Thel'ewere, respertively, 412 and 22 ambrosia beetle attacks. Rudinsky et nl. ascribed protection to repeI1ency. • Tliseetipi(1('S ar(' IJlllll('d neC'Mcling to the npproved common nnmes published h)· th(' ('ollllllittet.' on Insl.'ctiC'i!l1' Terminology, Entomological Society of America. BUI. Ent. Roc. AllI('r. !)fill : lR!l-1!l7. l!)C,;t "Gamma BHC" is us('c1 when BBC ix fOl'lIlulatr!l on Uw gllnllnll ixolller C'ontellt. • Th(' idrntiticntion of eommereilll proc1uC'ts or citing of trade 1I11111('S in this /IulJlicntion Is soll.'ly for till.' purpose of information. Endorsement is not in trnded and must not lJe inferred. STRUCTURE AND TOXICITY OF INSECTICIDE DEPOSITS 3 Johnston (54) found fuel oil solutions better than suspensions, and l:,,:>th these formulations superior to emulsions for preventing bark beetle and ambrosia beetle attacks on hardwood and pine logs. Smith (100) compared emulsions and No.2 fuel oil solutions of BHC for preventing black turpentin3 beetle attacks on slash pine stumps. The concentration of gamma, BHC was 0.5 percent in both :formulations. Applicatjon was Lo runoff, which deposited roughly 350 mg.