Influence of Synthetic Flavorings on the Migration Activity of Tribolium confusum and Sitophilus granarius

Abstract

Abstract Flavorings and volatile biologically active substances, used by humans for various purposes, may potentially have fumigating, repellent, or attractive effects on various species of anthropod storage pests. Tribolium confusum Jacquelin du Val, 1863 (Tenebrionidae) and Sitophilus granarius (Linnaeus, 1758) (Curculionidae) are the two most abundant pests of grain and grain products; the damage they cause to stored products of horticulture is 5–20% of the total yield of grain crops. In the experiment, we video-recorded migratory activity of beetles and evaluated it according to standard time periods (10, 20, 30, 60, and 120 seconds after the start of the experiment). No reliable influence of the 15 tested flavoring substances (benzyl alcohol, benzoic acid, toluene, hydroquinone, phenethyl alcohol, pinene, methylparaben, kojic acid, formic acid, isoamyl alcohol, tartaric acid, glycine, succinic acid, stearic acid, and ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid) on moving activity of Tribolium confusum was found. Exposure to benzyl alcohol brought a reliable decrease in locomotor activity of Sitophilus granarius (it exerted an attractant effect on imagoes as compared with the variant of the experiment without aromatic substances): 6.09 times more imagoes of S. granarius remained at a minimal distance from the aroma source than in the control, 6.07 more while exposed to hydroquinone, 5.50 to phenethyl alcohol, 4.50 to glycine, 3.44 to EDTA, 3.30 to toluene, 3.18 to methylparaben, 2.84 to succinic acid, 2.65 to benzoic acid, and 2.15 more when exposed to formic acid compared with the control variant of the experiment. Other surveyed flavoring substances (benzyl alcohol, pinene, kojic acid, isoamyl alcohol, tartaric acid, and stearic acid) had no significant effect on migratory activity of imagoes of S. granarius. The results allow us to recommend benzyl alcohol, hydroquinone, phenethyl alcohol, and glycine as potential luring substances or components of multicomponent flavoring mixtures during the assessment of the number of S. granarius in grain storage and processing facilities.