Introduction:

Bradysia impatiens causes significant losses in nurseries and greenhouses in Mexico.

Objective:

The insecticidal and insectistatic effect of Beauveria bassiana was evaluated on B. impatiens.

Materials and methods:

The insecticidal and insectistatic effect of conidia (107 conidia·mL-1), enzymes (10 000 ppm), metabolites (10 000 ppm) and crude extract of B. bassiana were evaluated at 8 and 20 days. Corrected mortality data of larvae and pupae of B. impatiens and relative emergence of adults, transformed with the arcsine function, in an analysis of variance and comparison of Tukey's means (P < 0.05).

Results and discussion:

At day 8, conidia had the highest insecticidal activity with 31.1 % of corrected mortality, and zero enzymes activity. At 20 days, treatments of metabolites and conidia had the greatest effect on mortality, 47.5 and 42.1 %, respectively. These treatments had the highest insectistatic activity. The emergence of adults at 20 days was lower with conidia (6 %), while with the enzymes it was 100 %. Metabolites caused that 65 % of adults had malformations.

Conclusions:

Metabolites and conidia of B. bassiana could be used for the control of larvae and pupae of B. impatiens.