Utilizing elevated temperatures (³500C) to control the stored product insect pests is one of the most viable alternatives to the impending loss of methyl bromide. To develop an effective heat treatment approach, it is essential to accurately predict and monitor the mortality of the target pests during heat treatment. An attempt has been made to develop the thermal death kinetic models to predict stage specific mortality of confused flour beetle, Tribolium confusum (Jacquelin du Val), during heat treatment. Eggs, neonates, old larvae, pupae and adults were exposed to 50, 54, 58 and 600C constant temperatures. Based on the LT99 values of time-mortality data, the old larvae were found to be the most heat tolerant stage, followed by adult, pupal and egg stages, while the neonate larvae were the most susceptible. At these temperatures, it took 46, 23, 17 and 14 minutes, respectively, to cause 99% mortality of the old larvae. The LT99s of the neonates were only 30, 17, 11 and 9 minutes, respectively. The time-mortality data were fit to thermal death kinetic models. After the models are validated with independent actual heat treatment data, these models should greatly facilitate heat treatment operators to predict and monitor the insect mortality in heat treatments.
Species 1: Coleoptera Tenebrionidae Tribolium confusum (confused flour beetle)
Keywords: stored-product insects, heat treatment
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