Investigating contact toxicity of Geranium and Artemisia essential oils on Bemisia tabaci Gen.

Objective: Sweet potato whitefly, Bemisia tabaci Gen. (B. tabaci), is one of the most important pests of various greenhouse crops in Iran. Nowadays, chemical insecticides are broadly used for control of the pests that causes risk to consumer's health. For the first time, contact toxicity of Pelargonium roseum Andrews and Artemisia sieberi Besser essential oils on B. tabaci and its possible application against the whitefly was evaluated in 2012. Materials and Methods: Essential oil with concentrations of 2500, 1250, 125, and 12 ppm were used. Infested leaves of greenhouse cucumber were treated by mentioned concentrations. After 24 hours, mortality of B. tabaci was recorded and compared after correcting by Abbot's formula. Results: Results showed that all concentrations of the essential oil could significantly reduce population of B. tabaci compared with the control treatment. Phytotoxicity of the treated leaves were recorded after 24, 48, and 72 hours and compared with the control. Concentrations of 2500, 1250, and 125 ppm caused severe phytotoxicity on greenhouse cucumber leaves and therefore are not suitable for greenhouse application. Phytotoxicity of 12 ppm was relatively low. Conclusions: This data implicated suitable protective effects of the essential oils to the pest infestation. Therefore, essential oils distillated from Geranium and Artemisia could be applied to control B. tabaci in greenhouse cucumber at V/V 12 ppm.