Development Notes
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Development Notes Edited by Dawn Berkelaar and Tim Motis January 2020 | Issue 146 Low Oxygen Methods for Insect Control in Seeds Hermetic storage can be by Tim Motis combined with other methods Hermetic storage is the simplest method This article summarizes several methods for controlling insects in stored seed, with which I have experimented to control and is appropriate for many situations. various types of weevils in stored seed. However, combining hermetic storage with Seed containers can range in size from other approaches can be helpful, as in the small jars to barrels/drums, but must be following scenarios: airtight for these techniques to work. The techniques are relevant for seeds being 1. There are not enough seeds to stored for household planting or grain completely fill a bag or container. As consumption, and can also be applied by mentioned earlier, a partially-filled community seed banks looking for low-cost container has more air space—and control alternatives to chemical protectants thus more O2—than a full container. and toxic fumigants. 2. You have high-value seeds and want Significance of insect damage to control insects before any seed in stored seeds damage occurs. Figure 1. Maize seeds damaged by lesser grain 3. You plan to share seeds with farmers Seeds are typically stored for a time before borer weevils (Rhyzopertha dominica). and want to take extra precautions to being planted or consumed. Any insects Source: Tim Motis present in that seed, if not controlled, avoid spreading insect pests. can quickly multiply and cause significant Navarro et al. (2012), rapid mortality of a 4. You find it difficult to control insects by damage (Figure 1). broad spectrum of insect pests occurs with 60% CO2. With elevated CO2, it is not as only excluding air. Insects’ sensitivity to Many storage pests originate in the field. critical to reduce O2 all the way down to 5%. low O2 can vary with life stage (Mbata Seeds may appear to be free of insects at the point of harvest, but eggs and larvae Respiration depletes O2 from the field may still be present. Insects Featured in this EDN can also be introduced when seeds are put As seeds and insects respire, they take into previously infested seed containers in O2 and release CO2. Microbes on 1 Low Oxygen Methods for Insect or grain bins. Insect damage reduces seed surfaces also respire; this is true, Control in Seeds seed germination and quality and is a for example, of mold growth under high major cause of post-harvest seed loss. humidity. Respiration is an important 5 EIAC 2019 Topic Summaries Most insect-related postharvest seed loss concept behind hermetic storage, which is is caused by various species of beetles the practice of keeping seeds in a sealed 8 Echoes from Our Network (Order Coleoptera) and larvae of moths and container. With no air coming in from the butterflies (Order Lepidoptera). This article outside, the O2 in a sealed bag or container Books, Web Sites, and Other focuses on weevils, which are a specific declines until insect activity slows down 9 kind of beetle. and/or the insects die. Resources The rate of O2 depletion varies with seed 9 Upcoming Events PRINCIPLES TO moisture content (moist seeds respire faster REMEMBER than dry seeds), temperature (heat favors faster respiration), seed volume (the more Honoring God by empowering the seeds in a container, the less O2 there will undernourished with sustainable Insects die with low oxygen be to start with), and presence of insects hunger solutions. (O2) and high carbon dioxide (the more there are, the faster respiration (CO2) occurs). Looking at two reports, it took ECHO anywhere from <1 (Bbosa et al., 2017) to 22 17391 Durrance Road Without enough O2, insects stop feeding (Anankware and Bonu-Ire, 2013) days for North Fort Myers, FL 33917 USA and die. Insect mortality occurs at or below O2 in a seed-filled container to decline from p: 239-543-3246 | f: 239-543-5317 21% (the percent of O2 in the atmosphere) 5% O2 (Njoroge et al., 2019). Insects also www.ECHOcommunity.org die with high levels of CO2. According to to 5%. et al. 2005). Eggs or pupae that might Biogas, comprised primarily of methane species vary in the time it takes them to otherwise survive for a long time in a (CH4) and CO2, can be produced with reach 100% mortality. sealed container are more likely to kitchen scraps or animal manure in die quickly when hermetic sealing is household-level anaerobic digesters. CO2 How would you know if you have drawn combined with other methods. can be produced with materials such as enough vacuum to reduce O2 down to 5% or organic waste, sugar, and yeast. less? Percent of container volume occupied One approach that is related to hermetic by O2 can be calculated as explained in an storage is to withdraw air from a sealed You can implement the methods described ECHO Research Update. With a container container, creating a vacuum. The stronger below with widely available materials. filled three-fourths full of maize seed, I the vacuum, the more air—and O2—will be Use approaches that work best for your calculated an O2 level of 3.7% with a gauge removed. situation. reading of 500 mm mercury. Another approach is to displace O2 by Note that pulling air out of a partially-filled allowing air to escape while introducing METHODS TRIALED AT plastic bucket or similar container causes another gas into the container. In this article, ECHO the sides to collapse inwards. That would we describe the use of biogas and CO2 to not be an issue with “gas-assisted” hermetic accomplish this; both are alternatives to sealing, where O2 is displaced by another chemical insecticides. Vacuum sealing gas. Below are some ideas for using biogas and CO2. Low O2 extends the life of dry Lawrence et al. (2017) controlled bruchids (Callosobruchus maculatus) in cowpea seeds seeds with 600 mm Hg (mercury) of Biogas vacuum drawn with a commercial vacuum In addition to controlling insects, low O2 sealer. The vacuum did not adversely affect In a trial done in 2017, a colleague (Stacy prolongs the life of stored seeds (Groot et seed germination. Swartz) and I killed sawtoothed grain al., 2015). Respiration is slowed by low O2 beetles (Oryzaephilus surinamensis) and low seed moisture, preserving seeds’ Building on that trial, I carried out a small using biogas fed into an inner tube from energy reserves. Low O2 also slows the experiment to find out if weevils could be a floating drum anaerobic digester (see accumulation of unstable O2-containing controlled with a vacuum drawn by a brake ECHO TN 44) that was filled with animal molecules that contribute to seed aging and bleeder pump (Figure 2). I placed maize manure. Squeezing the inner tube forced deterioration (Jeevan Kumar et al., 2015). weevils (Sitophilus zeamais) in 5 ml of the gas into a 2-L plastic bottle filled with As long as they are dry, orthodox seeds maize grain into three sealed 225 ml jars insect-infested maize seed (Figure 3). The will not die under low O2. (Orthodox under 500 mm Hg vacuum. I set up a similar beetles stopped moving within a few hours. seeds can survive drying or freezing, unlike treatment in another jar that was sealed but Weeks later, we saw no live insects in the recalcitrant seeds like avocado that will die not under a vacuum. I repeated these steps container; if eggs or larvae were originally if they dry out or freeze.) with red flour beetles (Tribolium castaneum) present, they did not survive. in bird seed (mix of various grains used for Researchers in India have already Low O2 can be accomplished this and other experiments presented in this article) and flour. Within three days, all experimented with biogas for control of with local resources of the maize weevils under vacuum died. Between the second and fifth week, all the Mason jars, jerry cans, used vegetable red flour beetles under vacuum also died. oil containers, and drums/barrels are all At five weeks (present time), both types of suitable containers, provided they have weevils in sealed jars with no vacuum are airtight lids or caps and are not punctured. still alive. Results suggest that, in partially- As another option, Purdue Improved filled containers, a vacuum drawn with Crop Storage (PICS) bags are promoted low-cost devices can kill insects faster than for hermetic storage of grain; for details hermetic sealing alone; however, insect on PICS bags, see a publication by Uys (2017) entitled “Using airtight bags to prevent post-harvest crop loss.” PICS bags are made with high density polyethylene (HDPE), which is thicker and better than low density polyethylene bags for preventing air from diffusing in or out. Figure 3. Seed container modified with tire Many technologies can be used to create a stems at the bottom and top of the seed vacuum, ranging from commercial vacuum container. The inner tube was connected to the bottom tire stem, which has its valve core sealers to low-cost devices such as brake removed to allow gas to flow into the container. bleeder pumps or modified bicycle pumps. The valve core was retained in the tire stem at ECHO TN 93 explains how to modify the top of the bottle so that the valve-core pin bicycle pumps, brake bleeder pumps, and could be pressed down (to allow air to escape syringes to remove at least some of the air while the container is being filled with biogas) from seed containers.