CARBON-BASED NANOCIDE AGAINST THE RED FLOUR BEETLE TRIBOLIUM CASTANEUM

Tribolium castaneum (Herbst, 1797) is apest of stored food that inflicts significant economic damage. Developinginnovative methods for controlling this pest can benefit insect and integratedpest management system development. A laboratory study was conducted to assessthe sub-lethal effects of carbon nanobiocide against the T. castaneum pest. This paper evaluated how carbon nanotubesinfluence several life characteristics of theT. castaneum insect. The larval mortality was reduced, yielding a mean rankmortality score of 33.3 at a 0.1 mg/mL concentration. The mean ranked adultmortality score for the concentration of 0.1mg/mL was 36.7. The fecundity offemales, measured by the number of eggs laid, varied across different CNTtreatments, with the 0.05 mg/mL concentration resulting in nearly no eggs laidper female compared to the other CNTs concentrations employed in this work. Thegermination rates of wheat seeds subjected to different CNTs concentrationsacross all studied materials were analyzed. To our knowledge, there is nopublished research examining the impact of CNTs on stored product insects.Thus, this study serves as a reference for future research by analyzing themerits and demerits of different CNT concentrations on stored pests such as thered flour beetle and forecasting their developmental trajectories.