Submitted to: Journal of Plant Diseases and Protection
Publication Type: Peer Reviewed Journal
Publication Acceptance Date: 4/17/2024
Publication Date: 5/12/2024
Citation: Al-Aqeel, N., Husain, M., Rasool, K., Sutanto, K., Mankin, R.W., Alduailij, M.A., Aldawood, A. 2024. Freezing temperature treatments against almond moth, Ephestia cautella (Walker), infestation of date fruits. Journal of Plant Diseases and Protection. https://doi.org/10.1007/s41348-024-00922-0.
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s41348-024-00922-0

Interpretive Summary: Success in developing medically safe and environmentally friendly management treatments against stored product insect pests depends partly on the pest and partly on the effectiveness of the treatments in available storage facilities. Students and scientists at King Saud University, and Princess Nourah bint Abdulrahman University, Riyadh, and the USDA-ARS Center for Medical, Agricultural, and Veterinary Entomology, Gainesville, FL examined the use of modified temperatures to control almond moth pests in stored dates. The results indicate that small-scale storage facilities with minimal resources can use house refrigerators to reduce pest insect harm, and larger facilities can can use -14 or -25 degrees Celsius temperatures to eliminate almond moths from stored dates.

Technical Abstract: Dates maintain prime importance as sources of income and as symbols of cultural heritage in Saudi Arabia. Ephestia cautella (Walker) is one of the most important insects that attack stored dates. To protect small-scale producers, 5 ', representing house refrigerator temperatures, -14 ', representing those available in-house freezers, and -25 ', representing those available in small factory freezers were applied to samples of dates previously infested with E. cautella larvae for exposure periods of 1, 12, 48, 120, and 240 h to consider the effectiveness of freezing temperatures against stored product insect pests. The temperature of -25 ' was the most effective against various stages as there was 100% mortality in all stages after 1-h exposure. At 5 ', the pupal stage was the most tolerant, as there was a mean of only 11% mortality after 240 h of exposure, whereas, at the same temperature the mean mortality of 89 and 97% was recorded for egg and larvae, respectively. However, when larvae were placed inside the dates, there was only 65% mean mortality after 240 h at 5 ' while the time to achieve complete larval mortality at -14 and -25 ' was 12 and 1 h, respectively. Such information can inform efforts to manage E. cautella in storages with minimum available resources.