Potential of Antitermitic Activities of Eucalyptus Oil

Laboratory bioassays on essential oil from Eucalyptus (Eucalyptus citriodora) was tested for its toxicity, repellency and fumigant activity against three economically important termite species: Heterotermes indicola (Wasmann), Microtermes obesi (Holmgren) and Odontotermes obesus (Rambur) of Pakistan. Termite toxicity was tested at different doses i.e. 1.25mg/600 mu l, 2.5 mg/600 mu l, 5 mg/600 mu l and 10 mg/s600 mu l of ethanol. 100% mortality was observed after nine days of exposure for M. obesi at all doses applied. For H. indicola, 100% mortality was not observed at the dose of 11.25mg/600 mu l at the end of test period (after 14 days). For O. obesus eucalyptus oil proved to be toxic and repellent within 24 hours of exposure at all the tested doses. Furthermore, it was also evident from the results that eucalyptus oil was highly repellent against termites. LC50 values for H. indicola and M. obesi were 3.715, and 7.15 respectively. So present study investigated the potential of eucalyptus oil from commonly used plants in Pakistan as an environmentally safe measure to control termites, the major urban pest of Pakistan.