Stored Food Pests

Modified from:

urbanprinciples.ifas.ufl.edu/stored food pests.ppt

Stored food pests

• 80% of human food comes from grains

• 12% of harvest is lost to insects before harvest

• another 36% is lost after harvest to insects

• overall total food losses due to pests are about 50% destruction

Two Pest Categories

• Primary – Cause initial injury

• Secondary – Take advantage of injury.

Types of losses due to pests

• Direct

• Indirect

Direct losses

– Actual consumption • loss of weight, • loss of nutrients, • lower germination,• reduced grade • lower market value

– Contamination – Damage to structures or containers

Indirect losses• wet grain heating

• bacteria

• fungi

• alflatoxins

• parasites of humans

• control and application costs

• excessive pesticide residues

• loss of consumer confidence

Food contamination• Insect infestation results in grain

damage that cannot be repaired• Food defect action levels set FDA

standards for insect contamination• Food exceeding those levels cannot be

mixed with un-infested food to reduce levels of contamination

• Food processors can be fined or sent to jail for infestations found during inspections

Food Defect Action Levels

• Apple Butter– Insect Filth: Ave. of 5 or more whole or

equivalent insects (not counting mites, aphids, thrips, or scale insects) per 100 g of apple butter

– Rodent Filth: Ave. of 4 or more rodent hairs per 100 g sample

– Significance: Aesthetic

Food Action Defect Levels

• Cherries, fresh, canned or frozen– Insect Filth

• Avg. of 4% or more pieces are rejects due to insects other than maggots

– Wheat Flour• Insect Filth: Ave of 75 or more insect

fragments per 50 g

Management of Stored Food Pests

• Monitor Pest Population

• Control through non-chemical means if possible

• Use Chemicals as a last resort (they can cause rejection too).

Objective:

Prevent contamination from causing rejection

Inspection and monitoring

• Survey areas where insect pests can enter facility

• Windows and doors should be tight to prevent entry when closed

• Vegetation (fruit and nut trees) can cause pests to proliferate close to the building

• Weeds can provide harborage

Monitoring

• Light traps— – commonly used to

trap flies, – can be used to

monitor flying stored product insects also

• Probe traps-- inserted into infested commodity to trap insects

Flanders, K

Pheromone Trap

Trapping• Traps for all but flour beetles should be placed about

6 feet up. Flour beetle traps should be placed level on floor or shelves

• Place traps in grid pattern 25-50* feet apart• Do not place close to windows and doors to prevent

luring insects into facility***• Pinpoint problem areas, then visually inspect to find

infestation• Routinely service to replace attractants and clean or

change sticky traps• Lures are effective for two months after this they

should be replaced with new ones.

Information from Trapping

• Monitoring—new introductions, isolate current problems

• Looking at setae on back of a beetle, can determine food it was in.

Other Rules of Thumb

• A warehouse may be 1 million cubic feet

• Trap placement– 1/30,000 ft3 (“average”)– 1/10,000 ft3 (“critical”)– 1/100,000 (“non-

critical”)

Monitoring

• Sex pheromone produced by – Various Moths – Anobiid beetles– Dermestid beetles

• Sources:– Insects Limited– Trece– Whitmire

•Moth – volatile

Monitoring

• Aggregation pheromone– produced by many

flour beetles and grain beetles.

– Both males and females respond to the lures

Indian meal moth pheromones

• adults up to 13 mm, • bicolored wings, inner half

light colored, outer half coppery

• feeds on almost any stored food but especially is found in stored nuts, grain, dried fruit, and pet food

• traps contain hangers, traps, lures, and sticky paper

Red and confused flour beetle pheromone

• adults up to 4.4 mm, dark reddish and somewhat flattened

• feed on flours, cereals, debris, cocoa, fruits, and vegetable products

• traps contain traps, oil dispensers, oil pads, and lures

Cigarette beetles

• adults up to 5 mm, brown to reddish with the head tucked under pronotum

• attacks most stored food including tobacco

• hanging traps have hangers, traps, lures

• floor traps have stations and lures

Sawtoothed grain beetle

• adults up to 3.25 mm, elongated and flattened, toothlike projections on side of pronotum

• enter many sealed containers

• same trap as flour beetle trap but with sawtoothed grain beetle attractant

Angoumois grain moth

• adult wingspan up to 19 mm pale yellow forewings and gray pointed hindwings

• attacks whole grains

• hanging trap includes traps, hangers, and lures

The trick to traps . . .

• Where’s the plume?• Things that influence the

pheromone plume:– Air handling system– HVAC, positive pressure– High use during summer

and winter– Sends pheromone up and

out of building if hung too high

– But if you hang the trap too low, the distribution of the pheromone will be poor and affect trap catch

/lancaster.unl.edu

IPM: Management Tactics• Non-chemical control

– Sanitation—– Physical—– Cultural—

• Many of the non-chemical control methods are PREVENTATIVE– Biological Control: ?

IPM: Management Tactics

• Judicious use of insecticides

• Examples of treatment plans, associated application equipment, formulations available and some products

Common Facilities with Stored Product Pests

• Warehouses

• Stores

• Homes

• Bins will be covered in the lab

General Principles for an IPM Program

• Inspect incoming material (prevention) is the first line of defense against most stored product insects.

Inspect rail cars and trucks for spilled food and infestations

www.bulkwest.com

Flour in bags— examine seams of bags; check surface of bags, look under a few bags, look for holes in bags, check pallet

http://www.fsa.usda.gov/daco/pdd/eob/bhous35.jpg

Inspection of incoming materials

• Look for trails in dust to determine presence of insects

• Boxes of grain products— – check surface of transportation vehicle and

dust residues, – remove inner pack, – check box and bottom of box, – check pallets

• Inspect material before putting inside kitchen pantry– Check cereal boxes,

flour bags, or any grain containing food

/www.artisanspecialties.com

General Principles for an IPM Program

• Inspect incoming material

• First in, first out

First In, First Out

www.olsensgrain.com

Pet Stores

Bags of pet food are common sources of infestation.

Pet Stores

Pig’s ear chew toy--dermestidswww.dog-gonegoodies.com

Grocery Stores

•SPP can start infestation in food products, but become a problem in paper goods (packaging) where they can pupate.

General Principles for an IPM Program

• Inspect incoming material

• First in, first out

• Sanitation

Sanitation

• Spilled food

• Flour dust

• Trash containers

• Broken packaging

• Equipment cleaning

Sanitation

• It’s one thing to clean out a kitchen pantry– Discard infested

items– Vacuum– Wipe shelves down

with warm soapy water

pages.ivillage.com

Sanitation?

Sanitation?

www.bulkwest.com

http://www.worldgrain.com/graphic/bulk.gif

Non-chemical controls

• Cold

• Heat

• Packaging

• Mechanical destruction

Cold

• Low temperature of product can retard or kill stored product pests

• Grain storage silos usually have aeration equipment to pull cold air into grain in winter to kill or slow development of grain pests

• Storing susceptible materials in refrigerator will slow or kill pests

• Packages placed in refrigerator will kill most stored products pests if the cold penetrates to all areas of the package (4 days for a 5 lb bag of flour)

Heat

• Processing plants are often heated to 120-150oF for 24 hours

• Infested food can be placed in oven at 150oF for 20 minutes

• Infrared and microwaves are often used to kill pests in processing

Packaging• Packaging can keep products free of insects• Newly hatched larvae can penetrate cracks

0.12 mm wide• Waxed paper and cardboard can be

penetrated by stored products pests• 75% of infestation occurs at folds and corners

of a carton• Foil laminates can prevent most insect

infestation• Glass jars and metal drums are virtually

insect proof

Mechanical destruction

• High rpm (2,900 rpm) will kill insects and mites

• Milling and other processing equipment can mechanically destroy insect pests

Entoleter – Impact milling equipment

http://www.entoleter.com/

Chemical control

• Much changed with loss of MeBr• Contact treatments -- Ultralow volume (ULV) or

Ultralow dosage (ULD) applications of pyrethrins or pyrethroids– Fogs, mists, and aerosols cannot penetrate food

to kill insects– They kill exposed stages and can be used

regularly to prevent infestations in the facility from attacking products

• Protectant insecticides– Placed in cracks and crevices where insects rest.

Protectants• Inorganic dusts (diatomaceous earth)

sometimes used to protect seeds and grains from insects

• Malathion-- – has been registered for application to all major

grains and has been used since 1958. – EPA tolerance is 8 ppm– in recent years most of the common pest species

have developed resistance to malathion– Not widely used

Protectants• Chlorpyrifos-methyl (Reldan),

– Banned in 2003• Pirimiphos-methyl (Actellic)-- expanded

registrations for stored grain insects– Not widely used

• Spinosad– Registered for stored grain use in Jan. 2005.– Effective against all major insect pests.– Like Bt, it is a bacterial by-product so is

considered “natural” and can thus be used on grain for any target market (including organic).

Protectants

• Hydroprene (Gentrol)-- can be fogged and sprayed for control of stored products pests– Gentrol Point Source

• Methoprene (Diacon II, Wellmark and DeGesch)

• Bacillus thuringiensis (Dipel)-- exempt from tolerance regulations. Can be applied as a surface treatment for control of lepidopteran pests

Fumigants

• Used to kill insects in raw and packaged food

• Leave very little residue

ProFume is replacing Methyl Bromide

• 2005 – MeBr production/importation banned• ProFume major player now.

– Dow AgroSciences– Sulfuryl Fluoride – old product, used for structural

pest control for many years (Vikane)– Disrupts the glycolosis and citric acid cycles,

works in 24-48 h– Cost similar to MeBr

Phostoxin, Gastoxin, or Magtoxin

• Can be used to kill insects in all kinds of grain, including seeds because phosphine has no effect on germination

• At 68oF, fumigation time is 3 days, at 40-53oF recommended time of fumigation is 10 days; therefore treated areas must be very gastight

Fumigation procedure for

stored products pests

• Sealing– similar to structural fumigation, but usually the infested

product is placed on a concrete slab and covered with a tarp held in place with sand snakes or tape

– Plastic tarp and tape is minimum required– Placards must be placed before start of fumigation and

must contain name of fumigant, date of release, name and phone of applicator

– If area around the fumigation is occupied, monitoring within 10 ft of the fumigated area is required and levels recorded

Fumigation procedure for stored products pests

• Release of the fumigant– 2 person teams responsible for release of

fumigant. – Full face respirators with proper canisters

or SCBA equipment must be available before release of fumigant

Fumigation procedure for stored products pests

• Aeration– A method of ventilation of the fumigated area must

have been established before release of fumigant– SCBA must be used in concentrations above 15

ppm– full face respirators with yellow cannister with olive

stripe are used for 0.3-15 ppm– no protection is required below 0.3 ppm – Anyone entering a fumigated area where

concentrations are unknown must where SCBA

Fumigation procedure for stored products pests

• Monitoring– Usually Draeger tubes and a

hand pump are used to monitor levels of fumigant.

– One pump will draw a specific amount of air through the tube

– Color change in the reactive material in the tube indicates air levels

Cardinal Products