Advances in post-harvest pest control research

Two advances in postharevst pest control research at USDA-ARS in Salinas, CA in last several years have potential to bring more effective alternative treatments for quarantine pests on harvested fresh commodities.  Oxygenated phosphine fumigation (fumigation in oxygen enriched atmosphere) was found to be more effective than regular phosphine fumigation and is effective against some insects such as LBAM eggs which cannot be effectively controled with regular phosphine fumigation.  Oxygenated phosphine fumigation also has shorter treatment times against specific pests than regular phosphine fumigation and this also reduces negative impact on postharevst quality.  Long phosphine fumigation treatment was also found to injur lettuce.  The injury is caused by CO2 acculmulation in fumigation chamber and adding CO2 absorbent in fumigation chamber can effectively prevent such injuries.  More recently, nitric oxide fumigation under ultralow oxygen condition was demenstrated to be effective against all tested insects at various life stages.  Nitric oxide fumigation is more effective than phosphine fumigation and has the potential to become a more effective and less toxic methyl bromide alternative than phosphine for postharevst pest control.