Evaluation the Toxicity of Honey Bee Venom on Achroia grisella Developmental Stages

Abstract

The common control method used to control the lesser wax moth A. grisella was fumigation with toxic gases; however, many insect pests of honey bees have developed resistance to the conventional control methods. This study aimed to study the toxicity of crude bee venom on developmental stages of A. grisella as safer alternative and replacement of these chemicals. The bee venom was collected by placing the electric bee venom collector device at the entrance of the beehive. Newly deposited eggs of A. grisella were assayed to evaluate the crude honey bee venom effect on the viability of eggs. Dried crude honey bee venom was diluted with pure acetone to concentrations of 50, 25, 12.5 and 6.25 µg/µl. Egg hatchability was significantly (p<0.05) affected by the treatment. The corrected mortality of the treated eggs was 50.54% in the higher concentration of 50µg/µl with average unhatched eggs of 17.5 eggs per total of 25 eggs with the median lethal concentration (LC50) of 52.89 µg /µl. The topical application of crude honey bee venom was applied on 3rd instar larvae with concentrations of 0, 6.25, 12.5, 25, 50 µg. The calculated mortality percentages for all treatments were 8% at the lower concentration and 52% at the high concentration. The calculated lethal median concentration LC50 was 38.27 µg /µl.