Document Type : Research Paper

Authors

• Kazem Mohammadpour ¹
• Vahideh Mahdavi ²
• Ali Mohammadipour ¹
• Fatemeh Shafaghi ¹

¹ Department of Entomology Research, Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization, AREEO, Tehran. Iran.

² Department of Pesticide Research, Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection, Agricultural Research, Education and Extension Organization, AREEO, Tehran. Iran.

Abstract

Keywords

• Date Palm
• Revive
• Insecticide Residue
• Rhynchophorus ferrugineus

Extended Abstract

Introduction

Objective

The red palm weevil is the most destructive pests of the date palm. The pest is currently distributed not only in Sistan and Baluchestan Province but also in the provinces of Kerman, Hormozgan, Fars, Bushehr, Yazd and South Khorasan. Dates are a strategic product that, in addition to domestic consumption and the livelihoods of growers, also holds a special position in terms of exports and foreign exchange earnings. Since the red palm weevil is a key pest of dates, it annually reduces date yields in infested areas. Until now, damage-control operations for the red palm weevil in infested areas of Iran have largely relied on surveying limited infested date groves by skilled labor to identify infested trees based on signs of infection and treating them by fumigation with aluminum phosphide tablets. The use of this method, in addition to problems such as the need for skilled workers, has the risk of re-infestation of date trees after fumigation is completed. Research has shown that the new insecticide Revivo 2 (generic name Imidacloprid) with a microemulsion formulation (ME 9.5%) used in the Canary Islands prevents damage from this pest.  Pesticides are among the most important contaminants in food, and monitoring their residues in agricultural products is an essential requirement for understanding the safety status of products. Monitoring and measuring pesticide residues in agricultural products, especially fresh produce and products such as dates that directly reach human consumption, is being carried out in various countries around the world in order to assess the health and safety of the population. Therefore, this study was conducted with the aim of examining and monitoring the residue levels of the new insecticide Revivo that is used in preventing infestation and damage from the red palm weevil in dates.

Materials and Methods

     In this study, Certified Reference materials (CRMs), acetonitrile and Poly Secondary Amin (PSA) were purchased from Sigma-Aldrich, Scharlau (Barcelona, Spain) and Agilent company (USA), respectively.

The study was carried out using emamectin benzoate (Revive ΙΙ, ME 9.5%) insecticide in the form of injection on four sides of infested tree trunk to preventing infestation of the date palm by R. ferrugineus in the Sisan and Baluchestan and Fars provinces. Treatments included ReviveΙΙ (ME 9.5%) with concentrations of 25 and 50 ml per tree (requested by the company), control trees (without injection) in two cases, including the control piece as a single and separate piece and adjacent control trees. A quick, easy, cheap, effective, rugged, and safe (QuEChERS)-based sample preparation method coupled with ultra-high performance liquid chromatography-tandem mass spectrometry (UHPLC-MS/MS) in dynamic multiple reaction monitoring (dMRM) mode was developed to determine the residues of the 3 pesticides in treated tomato samples.

Results and discussion

    Research have shown that the new insecticide Revive 2, with the generic name emamectin benzoate and a microemulsion formulation (ME 9.5%), has prevented damage from red palm weevil in some countries. This study showed that the infestation was zero in the treatment plots, while in the 4 control plots, the average contamination in Fars province were 0.68, 0.68, 0.84, and 0.52, and in Sistan and Baluchestan province were 0.12, 0.76, 0.24, and 0.08.  our result showed that in the vascular tissue of the date palm, one month after injecting a dose of 25 ml of insecticide into the base of the tree, the insecticide was not detectable in the first month, and a decreasing trend in the presence of residues was observed from the third month to one year. Also, in the vascular tissue of date palms, a decreasing trend in the presence of residues is observed from one month to one year after injecting a dose of 50 ml of insecticide into the base of the tree. By ignoring the first point, the increasing trend of the residue was shown in the date fruit until the 6th month and then a decrease until the following year. At the injection dose of 50 ml, the increasing trend of the residue in the date fruit until the 6th month and then a decrease until the following year is noticeable. Measurements of Revive insecticide in vascular tissue and date fruit showed that preharvest interval was 6 months. One year after injection, there were no insecticide residues in the vascular tissue samples of the injected trees. Although the residual amounts increased over the six months, this may be related to the nature of the release of this insecticide, as it gradually spread to the upper parts of the trunk. Of course, the method of irrigation can also affect the release of the insecticide.

Conclusions

     It was found that one single injection will be effective in protecting from the red palm weevil. It is recommended to inject the emamectin benzoate (Revive ΙΙ, ME 9.5%) at concentration of 25 ml in autumn after harvesting date until six months before harvest time.

Author Contributions

Vahideh Mahdavi: Resources, Funding acquisition, Validation, Visualization, Supervision, Writing-original draft; Fatemeh Khelghatibana: Conceptualization, Sample treatment, planning, Investigation; Ali Es-haghi: Formal analysis, Data curation, Methodology, Kasra Sharifi: Conceptualization, Sample treatment, planning, Investigation; Mahdieh Hoseini: Software, Formal analysis, Data curation, Methodology; Hosein Parsa: Extraction and Writing-original draft; Hooman Nankali: Supervision for real samples, Sampling. All authors have read and approved the published version of the manuscript.

Data availability statement

Data will be available upon request.

Acknowledgements

The authors greatly thank the Iranian Research Institute of Plant Protection (IRIPP) to provide the necessary facilities and equipment. 

Ethical considerations

Not applicable.

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.