“Eficacia de la aplicación líquida y sólida del hongo Beauveria bassiana para el control del picudo negro (Cosmopolites sordidus) y del picudo rayado (Metamasius hemipterus) en condiciones de laboratorio y campo” Autor: Dávila Guerra Kevin William Director del Proyecto de Investigación: Dra. Mayra Carolina Vélez Ruiz Quevedo – Los Ríos – Ecuador 2020.

The banana is affected by pests, such as: the black and striped weevil. The control of weevils is based on the use of dangerous insecticides; less toxic alternatives are needed. The effectiveness of the Beauveria bassiana fungus, for the control of weevils, has been proved. But, the lack of application methodologies avoid its use in the country. For this reason, the present investigation aims to evaluate the effectiveness of the liquid, and solid application of B. bassiana for the control of black weevil, and striped weevil in laboratory and field conditions. While the laboratory test conditions were carried out in the UTEQ Microbiology laboratory; the field conditions were carried out in the Oasis Farm 2 (Reybanpac). In laboratory, black and striped weevil were treated with B. bassiana in solid or liquid formulation, and distilled water; and in the field, insects were captured from pseudostem traps treated with solid or liquid B. bassiana formulations, and without any kind of application. In the laboratory, using liquid formulation allowed the highest percentage of black weevil mortality (44%), and in striped weevil the highest values obtained with the solid formulation (88%); the LT50, using the solid formulation, was 11 days. For the evaluations of the black weevil, in field, were found differences between the treatments only on the second day of capture, highlighting the liquid formulation (27,54%). However, the striped weevil solid formulation obtained the highest mortality rates (between 43,33% and 80,83%) during all the capture days (2, 5, 7 and 10) reaching a LT50 of 13 days. Five species were identified associated with pseudostem traps: C. sordidus, M. hemipterus, M. hebetatus, Polytus mellerborgii and Rhyncophorus palmarum. The results showed that B. bassiana is a potential agent for the control of banana weevils. Key words: Cosmopolites sordidus, Metamasius hemipterus, traps, biocontrol, mortality, lethal time