Description

In pest control, the Beauveria bassiana biological control agent has the unique advantage of a broad-spectrum insecticidal activity against most agricultural pests and medically important arthropods.Beauveria bassiana is the most studied biopesticide. After invading insect hosts, B. bassiana produces a variety of toxins, which are secondary metabolites such as beauvericin, bassianin, bassianolide, beauverolides, tenellin, oosporein, and oxalic acid. These toxins help B. bassiana to parasitize and kill the hosts. Metarhizium anisopliae is a unique biological insecticide. Metarhizium anisopliae is an entomopathogenic fungus that causes muscardine disease on a range of insects like different bugs, weevils and hoppers. It produces toxins that initiate protein degradation. The insect eventually dies as a result of chemical, mechanical, water loss & nutrient loss effects. Speed of kill depends on the number of spores contacting the insect, insect’s age, susceptibility and environmental conditions. Verticillium lecanii are opportunistic and widely distributed ascomycete fungi that has the ability to cause mycosis in a number of insects of orders Homoptera, Coleoptera and Lepidoptera.It also provides a rapid kill at optimum doses.It has the additional features to produce extracelullar enzymes, such as chitinases which helps in promoting host colonization. It also shows compatibility with commonly used agrochemicals such as insecticides or fungicides and other biocontrol agents.