Abstract

The western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Pergande), is a good working model for studies of irradiation as a quarantine treatment on agricultural products against this insect group. A study was conducted to evaluate the mortality of this species, resulting from different dosages of gamma irradiation. Field populations were collected and exposed to 0.5, 1.0, and 1.5 kGy in a 60-Cobalt irradiator. In a first experiment, 645 adult F. occidentalis per treatment were used. Adult mortality reached 35% to 67% after 1 h exposure, significantly higher than the control. In a second experiment with the same dosages and storage at 5-6