Toxicity Studies of Mixtures of Nicotine and Naphthalene as Fumigants

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Abstract
Insects were fumigated off their host plants by an air-flow method, which tended to keep the gas conc. constant in the fumigation flasks during the entire exposure period. When sublethal concs. (0.006 to 0.19 mg. per liter) of naphthalene were added to a lethal conc. of nicotine (0.0084 mg. per 1.), the fumigants appeared compatible, but no increase in toxicity over nicotine alone could be detected against the green peach aphid Myzus persicae in 1/2-hr. exposures at 25[degree]C. Naphthalene alone in concs. up to approx. saturation (0.56 mg. per 1.) and at the same exposure had little efficiency. Against the greenhouse whitefly Trialeurodes vaporariorum the addition of sublethal concs. of nicotine (0.004-0.006 mg. per 1.) to lethal concs. of naphthalene (approx. 0.56 mg. per 1.) increased efficiency over naphthalene alone in exposures of 15 to 75 min. The speed with which the whiteflies were paralyzed by the mixture was also increased considerably over either naphthalene or nicotine alone. Low and high rel. humidity (0 and 75%) appeared to have little effect on the efficiency of the mixture. The combination of naphthalene and nicotine seems worth testing under practical conditions.

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