“Trogoderma granarium Everts, khapra beetle, and Trogoderma inclusum LeConte, larger cabinet beetle, are highly destructive insect species that can infest a variety of food sources. The [treatment] is an insect growth regulator, IGR, and recently has been incorporated into packaging materials as a treatment option for packaged grain, food, birdseed, and feed products, and labeled for this use by the US Environmental Protection Agency. The objective of this research was to investigate the effect of continual exposure to this novel packaging technology on the development of T. inclusum and T. granarium larvae, and its potential use as a packaging treatment to prevent the penetration or invasion of T. inclusum and T. granarium into food packages. The [treated] packaging incorporated into kraft paper, woven bag material, polyethylene-polyethylene (PE-PE) material, and a polyethylene terephthalatepolyethylene (PET-PE) material, reduced normal adult emergence of exposed larvae. No normal adult emergence was observed on the inside surface of the PET-PE material. The polymer-based materials were the most effective at preventing penetration or invasion by Trogoderma spp. Only 2% of packages were invaded among all packaging treatment combinations compared to 16.7% invasion of untreated packages.
The materials were ranked in effectiveness as kraft paper < woven < PET-PE < PE-PE, however, all materials demonstrated significant positive results on Trogoderma spp. This novel packaging could easily be adopted as a packaging control strategy against these and other stored product insects in packaged products destined for commercial, international, and smallholder farm storage of cereal grains, feed, and other food products. The current study has shown [treated] packaging had a significant effect on Trogoderma spp. adult emergence and its potential to reduce packaging infestations. We ranked the materials from best to worst on preventing normal adult emergence of T. inclusum and T. granarium and their prevention of normal adult emergence and is as follows; PE-PE > PET-PE > woven > kraft paper, which is analogous to Highland’s (1991) and Mullen and Mowery’s (2006) ranking of packaging materials; however, the current packages have the added benefit of an IGR to further their effectiveness. However, penetration/invasion ability of stored product insects varies by material type, thickness, storage duration, insect species, and life stages. The current packaging varieties (kraft paper, woven, PE-PE, and PET-PE) have all demonstrated significant positive results on reducing adult emergences when larvae are exposed to the treated materials, and could be easily implemented into an integrated pest management program as a packaging control strategy against multiple stored product insect species to protect the foodstuffs along the supply chain.”
Deanna S. Scheff, Frank H. Arthur, Scott W. Myers
Evaluation of [treated] packaging against Trogoderma granarium Everts and Trogoderma inclusum LeConte larval development and packaging penetration or invasion
Journal of Stored Products Research, 11 Oct 2019
