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Title: Evaluating treatment efficacy in commercial food facilities: Insights gained from small-scale simulated warehouse experiments

Author
item Campbell, James - Jim
item TOEWS, MICHAEL - UNIVERSITY OF GEORGIA
item Arthur, Franklin

Submitted to: Meeting Abstract
Publication Type: Abstract Only
Publication Acceptance Date: 8/1/2007
Publication Date: 8/19/2007
Citation: Campbell, J.F., Toews, M.D., Arthur, F.H. 2007. Evaluating treatment efficacy in commercial food facilities: Insights gained from small-scale simulated warehouse experiments [abstract]. Presentation at the IOBC/Working Group on Integrated Protection of Stored Products, August 19-22, 2007, Poznan, Poland.

Interpretive Summary:

Technical Abstract: Although critical to a successful IPM program, it is challenging to evaluate treatment efficacy in commercial food facilities because of the inability to obtain absolute estimates of insect population levels. These populations are spatial fragmented and occupy cryptic habitats such as equipment, packages, and the structure of buildings that cannot be identified and sampled. This leads to a number of important questions including (1) what impact are treatments such as surface, crack and crevice, or aerosol applications having on pest population dynamics, (2) how does application method impact suppression of established infestations and reduction of new infestations, and (3) how well do pheromone traps that indirectly sample from dispersing individuals represent the absolute population density and subsequent changes due to treatment. While these questions cannot be accurately addressed in commercial facilities, they can be explored in small-scale simulated warehouses where resource amount and distribution, and initial pest density can be controlled and refugia can be directly sampled to estimate absolute population levels. Using the red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst), as a model organism and replicated small sheds with shelving units containing hidden resource patches of flour as simulated warehouses, we have begun addressing the above questions. We will present the results of some of these experiments and discuss their potential impact on how management programs should be implemented and evaluated in commercial food facilities.