Results of the seventh joint pesticide testing programme carried out by the IOBC/WPRS-Working Group 'Pesticides and Beneficial Organisms'

The side effect of 10 insecticides, 5 fungicides and 5 herbicides on 24 dif ferent species of beneficial organisms was tested by members of the Working Group 'Pesticides and Beneficial Organisms' of the International Organizat ion for Biological Control (IOBC), West Palaearctic Regional Section (WPRS) . The tests were conducted by 32 members in 12 countries according to inter nationally approved guidelines. The microbial insecticides Bacillus thuringiensis var. kurstaki (Delfin), B . thuringiensis var. tenebrionis (Novodor) and Verticillium lecanii (Micro Germin), the fungicides cyproconazol (Alto), difenoconazol (Score), lecithi n (Bioblatt Mehltau) and penconazol (Omnex), and the herbicides ethofumesat (Tramat), fluroxypyr (Starane), haloxyfop (Gallant), isoproturon (Arelon) and metamitron (Goltix) were harmless to nearly all the beneficial arthropo ds. The benzoylurea's teflubenzuron (Nomolt) and flufenoxuron (Cascade) aff ected predators such as anthocorids, earwigs, coccinellids and lacewings. T he remaining preparations were more toxic and should therefore be further t ested in semi-field and field experiments on relevant organisms. Most teste d fungicides were toxic for the entomopathogenic fungi.