Location: Stored Product Insect and Engineering Research
Project Number: 3020-43000-033-018-T
Project Type: Trust Fund Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: May 1, 2016
End Date: Sep 30, 2020
Objective:
The objective of this body of research is to evaluate deltamethrin-incorporated netting material and packaging materials as treatment options to control stored product insects and specifically the Khapra beetle, which is a quarantined pest in the USA.
Approach:
Tests will be conducted by created experimental arenas with the Zerofly bags, which contain the insecticide deltamethrin, manufactured by Vestergaard. The insecticide deltamethrin is incorporated into these bags. Individual exposure arenas will be created by constructing mini-bags with insect diet inside them, the individual diet will depend on the species. Test insects for experiments conducted at the USDA-ARS facility in Manhattan, KS, will be the Indianmeal moth, warehouse beetle, and the larger cabinet beetle. Eggs and larvae will be placed on individual arenas with the mini-bags containing packaged food diets, and also on untreated controls using similar material as what is used to construct the mini-bags. We will determine if the insecticide will prevent insects from penetrating into the bags. A second phase of the project will be conducted using the same procedures at the USDA-APHIS Center for Plant Health Science and Technology (CPHST), Buzzards Bay MA, with the Khapra beetle as the test insect. The Khapra beetle can only be reared under strict quarantine procedures and this travel to that site is necessary to conduct the experiments.
Field and semi-field tests with Khapra beetles will be conducted primarily in Greece and subsequent laboratory testing will conducted at the USDA-APHIS facility in Buzzards Bay, MA. The Khapra beetle is a quarantine insect in the US, and the USDA-APHIS facility is the only place in the US where a colony is undergoing rearing. However, in Greece the Khapra beetle is not considered a quarantine pest species and therefore large-scale field and semi-field tests can be conducted. Novel attract-and-kill devices using commercial traps and insecticide-incorporated netting material will be evaluated in several field sites across Greece. New hermetic packaging materials will be evaluated in semi-warehouses in Greece. The additional funds provided by Vestergaard Frandsen will be used to cover travel expenses in order to conduct experiments, meet with collaborators, and present the results of this research to a larger audience.
