The use of insects for food has attracted increasing interest in recent years. Insects as mealworms (Tenebrio molitor L.) may represent an alternative source of proteins and micronutrients compared to conventional meat sources. It is very important to increase the effectiveness of the collection of insect larvae biomass for the insect breeders. One of the possibilities could be the manipulation of insect larvae behavior using natural repellents. In previous studies we found that mealworm larvae have the strongest repellent effects on Mentha spicata L. and Thymus vulgaris L. essential oils. Thus, the objective of this work was to determine the effect of essential oils (M. spicata and T. vulgaris) compounds for mealworms. The behavioural experiment was performed in a Petri dish using behavioural assay. Larva behaviour was recorded and monitored by a computer program EthoVision XT 12 (Noldus, the Netherlands). Behavior was recorded for 5 minutes and 10 replications were performed with each the most abundant essential oil compound. Five spots on a Petri dish side were applied with the essential oil chemical compound (2 μl each, 10 μl total). The results showed that the most repellent active compound for the mealworm larvae was carvone, active at concentrations of 10 and 100 mM.
NATURAL REPELLENTS FOR MEALWORM (TENEBRIO MOLITOR L.) LARVAE
Gabrielė Bumbulytė1, 2, Vincas Būda1
1 The Nature Research Centre, Laboratory of Chemical and Behavioural Ecology, Vilnius
2 Vilnius University Life Sciences Centre, Vilnius