MOLLUSCICIDAL EFFICACY AND TOXICITY OF SOME PESTICIDES UNDER LABORATORY AND FIELD CONDITIONS

Abstract

Laboratory and field trials were carried out at Koom Hamada district and Etay El-baroud research station during 2004/ 2005 season to clarify the molluscicidal ac-tivities of the following: indoxacarb, lufenuron, Bacillus thurringiensis, kurestaci (Bt.) and methomyl against glassy clover snails Monacha cartusiana (Müler). Re-sults indicated that all tested pesticides decreased snails population compared with control. Under the field conditions, the efficiency of the tested compounds were 98.0, 93.4, 93 and 71.58% for methomyl, lufenuron, indoxacarb and Bt. after 5, 6, 13, and 28 days of treatment, respectively. Moreover the effect of LC50 and 0.5 LC50 of these compounds were investigated on some biochemical parameters in vivo. The activities of acetylcholinestrase (AChE), alanine aminotransferases (ALT) , as-partate aminotransferases (AST) and protein contents at different time intervals were evaluated. The specific activity of AChE reached 0.009, 0.002, 0.006 and 0.001 mole/ mg protein/ min for indoxacarb, lufenuron, Bt. and methomyl, respectively, after one day of treatment with (LC50 for each compound). In general, Bt. and in-doxacarb caused slight inhibition on AChE enzyme. All treatments decreased ALT and AST enzyme activity in the tested animals. However, Bt. Showed slight effect on the activity of aminotransferases enzymes.

Keywords

• snails
• molluscs
• pesticides
• toxicity
• enzymes