Acute toxicity of certain organochlorine, organophosphorus, synthetic pyrethroid and microbial insecticides to the mosquito fish Gambusia affinis (Baird and Girard).

Acute toxicity of certain organochlorine, organophosphorus, synthetic pyrethroid and microbial insecticides to the mosquito fish Gambusia affinis were determined to collect baseline data for selecting the resistant strains of the fish. The synthetic pyrethroid, Lambdacyhalothrin was most toxic to the fish (LC50 = 0.0022 ppm), followed by deltamethrin, cypermethrin and fenvalerate. Organochlorine insecticides, DDT and gamma-HCH, were less toxic than the pyrethroids, and these were followed by organophosphorus insecticides, malathion, fenthion, monocrotophos and temephos. The last two insecticides were least toxic among the different chemical insecticides (LC50 greater than 80 ppm ai). The microbial insecticide ABG-6262 (Vectolex 2.5 AS), a Bacillus sphaericus preparation, was totally harmless to the fish at 2500 microliters/l up to one week.