Mosquitocidal Bacillus thuringiensis from Nigerian soils

Out of 85 Bacillus thuringiensis strains isolated from Nigerian soils, 18 were larvicidal to Aedes aegypti, Culex quinquefasciatus and Anopheles gambiae. At 10−6 dilution of the final whole culture (FWC), the 11 most active strains, code-named GSC1, GSC3, GNA13, GNA14, OGL8, BUS4, BUS5, OBG1, OBG4, OBG8 and BAR3 produced mortality of 11.7–61.7% and 3.3–48.3% in Ae. aegypti and in C. quinquefasciatus fourth instars respectively. At 0.5 × 10−5 dilution of the FWC, the B.t. strains caused mortality in An. gambiae larvae ranging from 31.7 to 94.1%. All the 18 mosquitocidal isolates belonged to the subspecies israelensis, i.e. serotype 14. Microscopic examination revealed all the isolates to be typically Bacillus, with irregular or amorphous crystals of varying sizes.