Comparison of Chemical and Biological Wireworm Control Options in Serbian Sunflower Fields and a Proposition for a Refined Wireworm Damage Assessment

Round 1

Reviewer 1 Report

The manuscript (Comparison of Chemical and Biological Wireworm Control Options in Serbian Sunflower Fields and a Proposition for a Refined Wireworm Damage Assessment).

The abstract is very long, the size should be reduced especially the detailed methodology in the abstract.

L14. Please explain all the abbreviation in the text even well known abbreviation such as (EU).

L23. Please write the name of the fungus (Metarhizium brunneum) in italic.

L24 The experiments were done in three seasons (2018, 2019 and 2021), why you escaped the year 2020.

L33 Why did you use two ratings for undamaged - ratings 0 and 1.

L48 Please rephrase the sentence (Namely, for calculating the odds of wireworm damage occurrence, depending on the insecticide applied and the experimental field) to be more understandable.

L51 Metarhizium brunneum should be italic.

L94 Please write the scientific names Metarhizium and Beauveria in italic.

The objectives should be rewritten in more organized way without further explaining attract and killer strategy.

L125 Metarhizium brunneum should be italic.

L151 Why the authors did not use standard number of treatments in different seasons without variations depending on the year and experimental site for comparison.

Please prepare the Figures in more professional ways, please also write Percentage of undamaged and damaged plants on Y-axis.

Figure 8 should be completely changed (number 1, I could not see clearly).

The discussion should reorganized and re written in more understandable way.

Author Response

siehe attached rebuttal letter

Reviewer 2 Report

The authors intend to assess the efficacy of ATTRACAP® in comparison of conventioanl insecticides in sunflower fields against wireworms. This product contains an entomopathogenic fungus (Metarhizium brunneum) in combination with CO₂ release as an attractant. This is a three-year trial and all the treatments were evalauted based on plant density and damage rating scale.

Overall, the ATTRACAP proved to be effective and at par with the commonly used insecticides and the “Attract & Kill” strategy resulted very effective in controlling wireworms.

This is a well-written comprehensive field study, the objectives of the study are clear, the experimental design is appropriate and the results support the conclusion. The authors generated good quality data. It needs some minor changes in the ms

 

Some of the concerns are as follow:

 

L14-50: the abstract is un-necessary long which must be condensed maximum upto 250-300 words – it should be of one paragraph and use same font

L28; what is ”BBCH stage”, explain on first use?

L94; italicize each scientific/genus name throughout ms

L137; better to provide relavant reference?

L158; what is ”Field Bservations”?

L213-503; the Results should be summarized emphasizing on most significant findings

L606; try to avoid using Brand name of insecticide/s

L505-696; it is better the Discussion section should be condensed and be strengthened – the authors should provide the findings of few more but most relevant studies and then compare them logically with possible reasoning of variation of the current study results with the findings of other studies

Author Response

see rebuttal letter

Author Response File: Author Response.docx

Round 2

Reviewer 1 Report

The authors corrected the manuscript according to our comments.