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ARS Home » Pacific West Area » Parlier, California » San Joaquin Valley Agricultural Sciences Center » Commodity Protection and Quality Research » Research » Publications at this Location » Publication #312744
Title: Tolerance of Sitophilus zeamais (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) to heated controlled atmosphere treatments

Author
item LI, WEI - Northwest Agriculture And Forestry University
item WANG, KUN - Northwest Agriculture And Forestry University
item CHEN, LONG - Northwest Agriculture And Forestry University
item Johnson, Judy
item WANG, SHAOJIN - Northwest Agriculture And Forestry University

Submitted to: Journal of Stored Products Research
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/3/2015
Publication Date: 5/1/2015
Citation: Li, W., Wang, K., Chen, L., Johnson, J.A., Wang, S. 2015. Tolerance of Sitophilus zeamais (Coleoptera: Curculionidae) to heated controlled atmosphere treatments. Journal of Stored Products Research. 62:52-57. doi: 10.1016/j.jspr.2015.04.001.

Interpretive Summary: The maize weevil is one of the major pests of stored grain, and it often controlled with chemical fumigants. There are increasing public concerns over the use of agricultural chemicals. So, non-chemical phytosanitary treatments are needed as alternatives to fumigants. The effect of heated controlled atmosphere (1% oxygen plus 15% carbon dioxide) treatments on the mortality of adult maize weevil was determined using a unique heat block system to which controlled atmosphere was added. A fundamental reaction model was used to describe the response of the maize weevil to heat. Mortality of adult maize weevil under the heated controlled atmosphere treatment was significantly higher than that under heat alone. The slowest heating rate achieved the highest mortality under the heated controlled atmosphere treatment but the lowest mortality under heat alone. Heated controlled atmosphere treatments were shown to have potential in replacing chemical fumigation for control of insect pests.

Technical Abstract: Combination heat and controlled atmosphere (CA) postharvest phytosanitary treatments are environmentally friendly alternatives to chemical fumigants. A controlled atmosphere/ heating block system (CA-HBS) was used to rapidly assess tolerances of adult maize weevil, Sitophilus zeamais, both under regular air (RA) and CA (1% O2 and 15% CO2) conditions. In the RA treatment, thermal death kinetics for S. zeamais adults were determined at temperatures between 46C and 52C at a heating rate of 5C /min. The results showed that thermal death curves of S. zeamais adults followed a 0th-order kinetic reaction model. The required holding times for achieving 100% mortality were 165, 40, 14, and 4 min at 46, 48, 50 and 52C, respectively. The activation energy for killing S. zeamais adults was 526.7 kJ/mol. The effects on mortality of CA at various temperature-time combinations and heating rates were evaluated. The mortality of S. zeamais adults was higher under CA treatment than that in the heat treatment alone. The slowest heating rate (0.1C/min) achieved the highest insect mortality in CA treatments but lowest mortality in RA treatments. The information obtained from the CA-HBS can be used to develop combination heat and CA treatments against S. zeamais.