Impact of plasma irradiation on Tribolium castaneum

Waheed A A Sayed,Birgit A Rumpold,Reda S Hassan,Thanaa M Sileem

doi:10.1007/s10340-021-01360-9

Abstract

Radio frequency plasma (RFP) could provide reliable, compact, cost-effective irradiation applications against insect pests of stored food and feed products. Sensitivity of red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum to RFP has been investigated using an irradiation applicator system with the two types of inert gases, argon (Ar) and helium (He), at 100 W for five exposure time levels of 0, 20, 40, 60 and 90 s, respectively. We demonstrated that He RFP was more efficient against T. castaneum than Ar RFP. In addition, a positive correlation was observed between mortality percentages of treated insect stages and exposure times for both He and Ar RFP. The adult stage showed the highest tolerance to RFP irradiation followed by larvae and pupae; however, it was more susceptible than larvae within 24 h after He RFP treatments. The optimum exposure time was 90 s with He RFP, where a full mortality at all tested stages was accomplished, while mortalities of 71.4, 65.3 and 36.7% were recorded for pupae, larvae and adult stage, respectively, after an Ar RFP treatment of 90 s. In case of treated adults, the reproduction rate was higher than treated larvae and pupae. Our findings indicated that He RFP was an effective method for inhibiting T. castaneum development and impacting the insect life cycle and could be considered a promising tool for pest control of stored food.

Highlights

The red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) is considered a destructive pest that attacks most of stored products and economic commodities (Hagstrum 2016)
It was observed that He Radio frequency plasma (RFP) was more effective than Ar RFP, where full mortality was obtained for larvae, pupae and adults after 90 s with He RFP, while relative mortalities were recorded in these stages at the same exposure times treated with Ar RFP
The results indicated that the reproduction rates of treated adults were the highest in comparison with treated larvae and pupae for both Ar and He RFP treatments

Summary

Introduction

The red flour beetle Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) is considered a destructive pest that attacks most of stored products and economic commodities (Hagstrum 2016). Chemical fumigants that have been extensively used against T. castaneum and other stored product pests, in particular in developing countries, have detrimental effects on the ecosystem and its fauna, in particular ozone layer and human health (Zettler and Arthur 2000). Due to these environmental and health concerns, several pest control technologies have been proposed as alternatives, such as heat treatment (Arbogast 1981), essential oils (Saroukolai et al 2010), ozone (Xinyi et al 2017) and microwaves (Lu et al 2010).

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Results

Conclusion