Project Number: 5430-43440-005-19
Project Type: Trust

Start Date: Jan 01, 2009
End Date: Dec 31, 2010

Objective:
The objective of this cooperative research is to determine insect pest densities and commingling of insects in grain that cause spread of an infestation from an elevator boot and pit area of commercial elevators and flour and feed mills and develop recommendations for improved science- and economics-based best management practices to control the spread of these insect infestations.

Approach:
A baseline for existing conditions in commercial facilities will be determined by monitoring two annual cycles of insect infestation levels in the elevator boot and pit areas of commercial grain elevators and flour and feed mills by collecting residual grain samples monthly. Adult insects will be removed from the samples by sieving and will be counted. Grain samples will also be held for eight weeks to check for progeny. Approximately 14 elevators in Kansas and Kentucky, six to eight in each state, will be surveyed monthly in 2009 and 2010. Experimental pilot-scale bucket elevator legs (with a capacity of 7.6 t/h) will be used to run parallel treatments with different insects and grains, including one insecticide treatment and one control with no insects for each grain type. Wheat samples will be infested with adult Rhyzopertha dominica (F.), lesser grain borer; Cryptolestes ferrugineus (Stephens), rusty grain beetle; and Tribolium castaneum (Herbst), red flour beetle, one-week prior to testing. Corn samples will be infested with adult Sitophilus zeamais (Motchulsky), maize weevil; Oryzaephilus surinamensis (L.), sawtoothed grain beetle; and T. castaneum , red flour beetle. These tests will be replicated three times for both wheat and corn. Insects in the discharge samples will be counted to determine commingling levels of stored-grain insect populations in wheat and corn and identify the dynamics that lead to the spread of infestations from this area to other sections of a facility, and assess the impact of infestation levels on grain quality. Wheat and corn samples from the pilot-scale tests will be analyzed using customary grain quality parameters. The mechanisms that cause the spread of infestations will be evaluated with a mechanistic simulation model and strategies that minimize that spread will be identified. An empirical optimization model will be developed, in accordance with developing an elevator facility partial budget, that allows a decision-maker to target pest management tactics to make integrated pest management programs more effective. Costs associated with an elevator sanitation program will be compared with the risk-analysis study of insect commingling effects in grain elevator and flour and feed mill storage facilities to identify the most effective and most economical pest management practices. Finally, we will develop and widely disseminate recommendations for improved science- and economics-based best management practices to control the spread of these insect infestations in the grain handling and storage facilities of commercial elevators and flour and feed mills.