Culturable Whitefly Associated Bacteria and Their Potential as Biological Control Agents

Bio-pesticides play an important role in reducing the deleterious effects associated with using conventional insecticides. For this reason, the potential of eleven whitefly-associated bacterial isolates as biological control agents was studied under lab conditions. These bacteria were three gram negatives; Erwinia persicinus, Pseudomonas plecoglossicida and Pseudomonas putida, and 8 gram positives; Brevibacterium casei, Staphylococcus gallinarum, Bacillus pumilus, Bacillus licheniformis, Bacillus subtilis, Exiquobacterium acetylicum, Exiguobacterium undae, and Micrococcus caseolyticus. Results revealed that Erwinia persicinus, Bacillus pumilus and Exiquobacterium acetylicum were the most effective in reducing Bemisia tabaci 2nd nymphal instar populations. Erwinia persicinus was the most promising bacterial isolate to be developed as a biological control agent