Comparative efficacy of spinosad with conventional acaricides against hard and soft tick populations from Antalya, Turkey

The acaricidal efficacy of ceramic tiles treated at field application rates with either spinosad (Mozkill© 120 SC, 0.01 g ai/m2), deltamethrin (Impotek Deltamethrin© EW, 0.01 g ai/m2), permethrin + esbiothrin (Chrysamed©, 0.1 g ai/m2), chlorpyrifos-methyl (Chlortoks© EC 50, 0.2 g ai/m2) or a mixture of alpha-cypermethrin/tetramethrin/piperonyl butoxide (Ecorex Alfa© SE, 0.01 g ai/m2), against larval Rhipicephalus turanicus and Argas persicus ticks was determined in laboratory bioassays. All ticks were initially exposed to treated tiles for 15 min then removed to non-treated containers and mortality evaluated for 15 min, 1 h, 6 h, and 24 h postexposure. Generally, A. persicus proved to be the most susceptible of the two species to all treatments. The alpha-cypermethrin/tetramethrin/piperonyl butoxide mixture was the quickest acting acaricide against larval A. persicus where 100% mortality was observed 15 min postexposure. For the rest of the treatments complete mortality was obtained at 1 h except for permethrin/esbiothrin which occurred at 6 h postexposure. Complete mortality of larval R. turanicus occurred to deltamethrin and spinosad at 1 h postexposure with all acaricides providing 100% control at 6 h except permethrin/esbiothrin which only achieved 92% control through the end of the study (i.e. 24 h). Our results showed that spinosad would be a useful addition in a tick control program as an alternative for pyrethroids and organic phosphorus acaricides against both tick species.