Articles - Chemical Science & Engineering Research

Abstract

Maize infestation by pests during storage which often leads to weight losses is one of the challenges in maize storage. The consumption of pest-infested maize grain is very unhealthy, as these grains are prone to contamination by mycotoxins. This study assessed the effect of integrating maize accessions with plant powders on Sitophilus zeamais in stored maize. A comparative study of three maize accessions TZM 124,136 and 125 were integrated with three plant powders namely Piper guineense, Annona squamosa and Vernonia amygdalina on cultured maize weevil, Sitophilus zeamais Motschulsky through laboratory assays experiment in a completely randomized design with four replicates. The effect and susceptibility of Sitophilus zeamais with maize accessions were compared using Student Newman Keul at p<0.05. Maize accession TZM 136 integrated with P. guineense and TZM 125 integrated with A. squamosa recorded 100% mortality at 7 days without egg laid and seed damage. The integration of P. guineense with TZM-136,124,125 recorded no seed damage. No adult emerged in all the three maize accessions treated with Annona squamosa for the F1 generation. All the maize accessions integrated with all the three plant powders recorded a significantly higher percentage of seed germinability compared to the control. The study concluded that maize accessions TZM 124,136,125 with Piper guineense, Annona squamosa, and Vernonia amygdalina is a good management strategy and thus recommended for the control of Sitophilus zeamais.