© 2018 Discovery Publication. All Rights Reserved. www.discoveryjournals.org OPEN ACCESS ARTICLE Page469 RESEARCH Efficacy of different plant extract on packaging materials against Tribolium castaneum Muhammad Bilal Saleem 1 , Mubashar Hussain 2 , Mehboob Hussain 1 , Muhammad Awais 1 , Mirza Muhammad Usman Hayat 1 , Muhammad Waseem Zulifqar 3 , Muhammad Mubeen Khadim 4 The present study was carried out to investigate the toxicity of plant extracts treated on three packaging materials against two stored product insect pests, Tribolium castaneum. Three plant extracts (Azadirachta indica, Eucalyptus globulus and Ocimum basilicum) were applied on three packaging materials (polyethylene, polypropylene and jute). Six concentrations of plant extracts (10, 15, 20, 25, 30 and 35%) were applied on each packaging material cut into circular pieces of petri dish size. After air drying, the treated pieces of packaging materials were placed in petri dishes. Then 30 adults of Tribolium castaneum was released in the petri dishes, which were tightly covered using rubber bands and were placed in incubator at optimum growth conditions. Mortality of insects were observed after 24, 48 and 72 hrs. According to the results of bioassay for evaluation of plant extracts, maximum mortality of T. castaneum at 35% conc. and 72 hours exposure time was 36.01% for Azadirachta indica treated on polyethylene packaging material, 32.95% for Eucalyptus globulus and 24.30% for Ocimum basilicum at the same packaging material, dose rate and exposure time. INTRODUCTION Insects are responsible for causing a lot of damage to stored products and stored grains, they cause up to 5-10% damage in stored products of temperate zone and about 20-30% damage in tropical zone (Nakakita, 1998). These insects are very significant in causing post-harvest losses, which leads up to 36% (Tefera, 2012). These insects also act as a vector of various diseases that are dangerous for the health of animals and human beings. For example, (Larson et al., 2008) shows the evidence of enterococci in insects of stored products, which basically act as a reservoirs for various active genes and antibiotic resistant genes. Throughout the world the most injurious and damaging pests of stored products are Tribolium castaneum (Mondal, 1994). T. castaneum (Herbst) red flour beetle is one of the most important pest of stored grain (Shafique et al., 2006; Hulasare et al., 2003). Pest control in stored products is a very major problem in developing countries. Among the international pests of cereals, stored grains, fruit and nuts the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) are most important (Fedina and Lewis, 2007). Use of woven bags is one of the low-cost method of storing grains but this method needs to apply the insecticide (De Groote et al., 2013; Maina et al., 2016). In Sub-Sahara region for storing maize and some other crops hermetic storage bags were used for past ten decade (Baoua et al., 2014; De Groote et al., 2013). Many companies have applied package-testing programs in order to develop resistance against insect attack (Mullen, 1994). Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bags contains two layers of high density polyethylene (HDPE) surrounded by a polypropylene bag, they give an excellent protection against bruchid seed beetles to cowpea grain in West Africa (Baoua et al., 2013; Baoua et al., 2012; Murdock et al., 2012). Repellents, means having the ability to repel insect to enter or move across a surface which is treated with these repellents. The use of coating of these repellent on packages is helpful in order to prevent insect infestation at that portion where further research is to be conducted (Mullen et al., 2012). Highland (1978) recorded the progress of repellent treatments as a priority. Different repellent formulations have been tested through the years. Natural and synthetic combinations were used in the studies of senior authors. They include insect growth regulators neem oil, methyl salicylate and DEET derivatives (Mullen et al., 2012). EPA was accepted as Provision Gard™ in 2009, in which IGR methoprene was used and it is also used in many package applications now a days. Provision Gard TM is very useful in order to prevent the Indian meal moth entry. Plant extracts are more effective in the way as they do not cause pollution, they produce less toxicity and are bio-degradable. Some plants naturally have the repellent effect against many stored grain pests (Behal, 1998). In many studies it was observed that Eucalyptus camaldulensis have fumigant potential which help in the control against Tribolium castaneum (Negahban and Moharramipour, 2007). According to the studies of last 20 years, in order to control some insect pests and pathogens by Azadirachta indica extract along with its compounds was proved best (Mwangangi and Mutisya, 2013). Different developmental RESEARCH 54(276), December 1, 2018 Discovery ISSN 2278–5469 EISSN 2278–5450 1 Department of Entomology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan; 2 College of Agronomy, Jilin Agricultural University, Changchun 130118, China; 3 Department of Plant Breeding and Genetics, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan; 4 Institute of Agriculture Extension and Rural Development, University of Agriculture Faisalabad, Pakistan  Corresponding author: Department of Entomology, University of Agriculture, Faisalabad, Pakistan; Email: bilalsaleem10@outlook.com