Location: Stored Product Insect and Engineering Research
Project Number: 3020-30400-001-025-A
Project Type: Cooperative Agreement
Start Date: Aug 1, 2026
End Date: Jul 31, 2027
Objective:
1) Validating real world heat treatment parameters.
2) Mapping movement in heat gradients.
3) Assessment of mortality in colony populations with heat and high nitrogen combinations.
Approach:
All experiments will be performed with khapra beetle or surrogate dermestid species. For Obj. 1, using the data gathered for the commodities (wheat, watermelon, maize, lentils, other cucurbit seeds) in small chambers, we will validate heat treatment in a real-world scenario. Australia has defined parameters for heat treatment for khapra beetle, and there are facilities in Greece being designed in an effort to meet these standards, based on the Australian standards (DAFF, 2023), but also the requirements of ISPM 15 protocols. The standards are specified in the online documents from the Australian government. The study will mimic the conditions inside a shipping container housed at Kansas State University and University of Thessaly in Volos, Greece, where there are colonies of khapra beetle. To ensure airflow, containers will not be completely full of grains, but rather we will place buckets with 20 liters of the commodity within the container that are infested with khapra beetle larvae and adults on stacked pallets. We will add the entire contents of standard colony jars, one that is two months old and full of actively developing beetles, and another that is one year old and full of starved diapausing larvae to each of the commodity buckets and allow them to acclimate for five days before initiating the treatment. For Obj. 2, a heat gradient block will be used to assess temperature preference in conjunction with video-tracking. For Obj. 3, we will take the following approach. Cold diapause will be induced in a one-liter two-month colony jar (using standard diet) and all larvae transferred to four half-liter jars full of the four different commodities, which will be held for two days before treatment. Larvae will be transferred from “old colonies” in one-liter jars with diapausing larvae to four half-liter jars full of the four different commodities, which will be held for two days before treatment. Treatments will involve combinations of 45C, 50C at 4 hrs, 24 hrs and 48 hrs of exposure to a high nitrogen environment.