Research Article

Environmental Strategies for Controlling the Greater Wax Moth (Galleria mellonella L.) Using Plant Extracts

Abstract

In an advanced insect laboratory, the greater wax moth, Galleria mellonella, was collected and reared for the purpose of conducting experiments in this investigation. The efficacy of varying concentrations of both alcoholic and aqueous leaf extracts of Eucalyptus and Aloe vera in causing mortality of the seventh-instar larvae of the greater wax moth was assessed in these experiments. The total mortality of seventh-instar larvae treated with varying concentrations of the alcoholic and aqueous extracts of Eucalyptus and Aloe vera was also compared in the study, as was the effectiveness of the alcoholic and aqueous extracts of these two plants in achieving total larval mortality. A positive correlation was observed between the concentration used and the total mortality of the larvae. Specifically, the highest total mortality recorded for the seventh-instar larvae treated with the alcoholic and aqueous extracts of Aloe vera was 0.74 and 0.87, respectively. Likewise, a positive correlation was found between the total mortality of the seventh-instar larvae and the concentrations used for the alcoholic and aqueous extracts of Eucalyptus, with the highest mortalities being 0.52 and 0.87, respectively. Furthermore, when comparing the total mortalities of larvae treated with the alcoholic versus aqueous extracts of Aloe vera, the highest mortality rates were 1.14 and 1.42, respectively, at a concentration of 60 mg/ml. In contrast, the highest overall mortality rates for larvae treated with the alcoholic and aqueous extracts of Eucalyptus were 1.20 and 1.24, respectively, also at a concentration of 60 mg/ml.