Effects of Droplet Distribution on Insecticide Toxicity to Asian Corn Borers (Ostrinia furnaealis) and Spiders (Xysticus ephippiatus)

Distribution of horizontal boom produced droplets downwards into maize canopies at flowering period and its effects on the efficacies of emamectin benzoate, lambda-cyhalothrin and chlorantraniliprole against the second generation of Asian corn borer (ACB) larvae and their toxicity to spiders were studied. When insecticides were sprayed downwards into the maize canopies, randomly filtering out droplets by upper leaves led to great variations of droplet coverage and density within the canopies. Consequently, the efficacies of lambda-cyhalothrin and emamectin benzoate against ACB larvae were decreased because of randomly filtering out droplets by upper leaves. But field investigation showed that lambda-cyhalothrin was extremely toxic to hunting spiders, Xysticus ephippiatus, and not suitable to IPM programs in regulation of the second generation of ACB. Therefore, randomly filtering out droplets by upper leaves decreased lambda-cyhalothrin's efficacy against ACB larvae, but did little to decrease its toxicity to X ephippiatus. Amamectin benzoate can reduce the populations of X ephippiatus by 58.1-61.4%, but the populations can recover at the end of the experiment. Chlorantraniliprole was relatively safe to X ephippiatus. It only reduced the populations of X ephippiatus by 22.3-33.0%, and the populations can totally recover 9 d after application.