Location: Stored Product Insect and Engineering Research
Project Number: 3020-30400-001-023-S
Project Type: Non-Assistance Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Sep 1, 2026
End Date: Aug 31, 2028
Objective:
Objective 1. Evaluate the minimum area required for areawide implementation of MD.
Objective 2. Systematically recruit partner food facilities and implement areawide mating disruption and monitoring tools to suppress and monitor stored product moth populations.
Objective 3. Assess areawide efficacy of mating disruption of stored product moths on a landscape scale.
Objective 4. Promote adoption of MD and behaviorally-based management and monitoring practices at food facilities and transfer results to stakeholders.
Approach:
Objective 1. To determine how large the MD area should be, we will deploy high dose pheromone dispensers (CIDETRAK IMM, Trécé Inc.) for MD. We will apply it in a simulated warehouse only or additionally in buildings + outdoors (volume equal to height of buildings) within a diameter of 20, 50, 100, 200, or 300 m. We will then release 300 moths in each cardinal direction at the boundary of the diameter but in the untreated area. A grid of ZETA-baited Storgard flight traps (Storgard III IMM, Trécé Inc., Adair, OK) and 20-g lots of sentinel wheat (50% cracked) will be placed at regular intervals outside of the treated diameter to within the simulated warehouse. Grids for grain and traps will be offset. Grain and traps will be deployed for four consecutive weeks per diameter of MD implementation and changed every 7 d from May–September for two years.
Objective 2. Based on the minimum effective area for MD from Obj. 1, we will implement MD using the proven high-dose pheromone dispensers for stored product moths developed by Trécé Inc. (Cidetrak®) in collaboration with our industry partners and following their stakeholder-informed recommendations. We will establish areawide implementation zones for MD at clusters of food facilities (elevators, processors, retailers, end users) in Manhattan, KS, Lincoln, NE, and Kansas City, MO, and these will be compared to paired untreated areas in each location that have a lone food facility implementing MD. In this way, we will assess the areawide impact of MD and its appropriate implementation on the suppression of moths after harvest for stakeholders.
Objective 3. In both treated and untreated areas, intersecting transects of moth flight traps (Storgard) and dishes of sentinel grain (50% cracked grain) will be deployed at regular intervals covering paired treated and untreated areas in each location. These grids will span food facilities and spaces in between over three contiguous years. In addition, commodities from each cooperating food facility will be physically sampled and assessed for insect infestation and damage. Success will be judged by reduced captures of moths, no progeny production in the deployed commodities, and less damage at food facilities.
Objective 4. We will develop a fact sheet tailored for food facilities and homeowners for the results from this project and communicate results at regional and national stakeholder meetings. Specifically, this objective will establish the current utility and usage level for MD and behaviorally-based monitoring for stored product moths, and the associated economic cost and return on investment in their adoption. Baseline data collected at the project outset and subsequent data collected throughout the project will be used for this effort and to refine Extension/outreach programming for stakeholders and the general public.