Stored Food Pests

1. Stored Food Pests Modified from: urbanprinciples.ifas.ufl.edu/stored food pests.ppt

2. 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

3. Two Pest Categories • Primary – Cause initial injury • Secondary – Take advantage of injury.

4. Types of losses due to pests • Direct • Indirect

5. Direct losses • Actual consumption • loss of weight, • loss of nutrients, • lower germination, • reduced grade • lower market value • Contamination • Damage to structures or containers

6. Indirect losses • wet grain heating • bacteria • fungi • alflatoxins • parasites of humans • control and application costs • excessive pesticide residues • loss of consumer confidence

7. 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

8. 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

9. 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

10. Management of Stored Food Pests Objective: Prevent contamination from causing rejection • Monitor Pest Population • Control through non-chemical means if possible • Use Chemicals as a last resort (they can cause rejection too).

11. 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

12. 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

13. Pheromone Trap

14. 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.

15. Information from Trapping • Monitoring—new introductions, isolate current problems • Looking at setae on back of a beetle, can determine food it was in.

16. 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”)

17. Monitoring • Sex pheromone produced by • Various Moths • Anobiid beetles • Dermestid beetles • Sources: • Insects Limited • Trece • Whitmire • Moth – volatile

18. Monitoring • Aggregation pheromone • produced by many flour beetles and grain beetles. • Both males and females respond to the lures

19. 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

20. 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

21. 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

22. 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

23. 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

25. 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

26. IPM: Management Tactics • Non-chemical control • Sanitation— • Physical— • Cultural— • Many of the non-chemical control methods are PREVENTATIVE • Biological Control: ?

27. IPM: Management Tactics • Judicious use of insecticides • Examples of treatment plans, associated application equipment, formulations available and some products

28. Common Facilities with Stored Product Pests • Warehouses • Stores • Homes • Bins will be covered in the lab

29. General Principles for an IPM Program • Inspect incoming material (prevention) is the first line of defense against most stored product insects.

30. Inspect rail cars and trucks for spilled food and infestations www.bulkwest.com

31. 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

32. 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

33. Inspect material before putting inside kitchen pantry • Check cereal boxes, flour bags, or any grain containing food /www.artisanspecialties.com

34. General Principles for an IPM Program • Inspect incoming material • First in, first out

35. First In, First Out www.olsensgrain.com

36. Pet Stores Bags of pet food are common sources of infestation.

37. Pet Stores Pig’s ear chew toy--dermestids www.dog-gonegoodies.com

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

39. General Principles for an IPM Program • Inspect incoming material • First in, first out • Sanitation

40. Sanitation • Spilled food • Flour dust • Trash containers • Broken packaging • Equipment cleaning

41. 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

42. Sanitation?

43. Sanitation? http://www.worldgrain.com/graphic/bulk.gif www.bulkwest.com

44. Non-chemical controls • Cold • Heat • Packaging • Mechanical destruction

45. 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)

46. 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

47. 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

48. Mechanical destruction • High rpm (2,900 rpm) will kill insects and mites • Milling and other processing equipment can mechanically destroy insect pests

49. Entoleter – Impact milling equipment http://www.entoleter.com/

50. 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.