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You are here: Home / Food Pests / The Look and Behaviour of pests / The Air

The Air

When the air which passes over or through a product changes the temperature and humidity of that product, the mites and insects react to it. Air also has other properties that affect insects. Carbon dioxide has a concentration at 0.03 % in air and if it rises to a few percent, the air is toxic to humans and other warm-blooded animals. Mites and insects can tolerate much higher concentrations. One must maintain a carbon dioxide concentration of 60 % at a minimum of
27 ° C for at least four days just to achieve a 95 % extermination of the current storage insects. Efficiency also depends on the metabolism of the insect phase. Resting phases such as eggs and various moulting phases can withstand more than other insect phases. A moderate to high carbon dioxide content in the air will increase the effect of treatments with insecticides or poison gas.

Nitrogen has a poor effect. Nitrogen concentration must be 99.5 % and the duration must be at least tripled at the same temperature as before, to achieve any effect at all. Insects can live in oxygen deficient atmospheres. In contrast, the combination of a high concentration of carbon dioxide and an oxygen level beneath 2 % has proven quite effective to kill pests after some time. As everyone with gastight silos knows, the disadvantage of this method is that it only works as intended if you are very careful to keep the oxygen percentage low in the entire storage period.

Low air pressure has no significant effect on insects. They simply stop their activity as long as the low air pressure lasts, and it is only if the low air pressure has secondary effects in the form of excessive water loss from the insect, that you can count on them to take permanent damage after short periods at low air pressure. Large and rapid pressure changes in the air like vacuum packaging of goods is not good for insects, but it does not necessarily kill them. Very small pressure changes in the atmosphere in the form of low pressure may cause small changes in behaviour, for example, with granary weevils, wherein the percentage of insects that exhibit chaotic behaviour appears to vary with the pressure changes.

Food Pests
Introduction
An old problem
Competition for food
Pests can ruin stored goods
Why not just eat the insects
Some insects are unhealthy to eat
Allergy to pests
Transmission of infectious diseases
Where do pests come from?
Synanthrope species
(1) The house dust mite and the sugar mite
(2) The firebrat and the silverfish
(3) The German cockroach and the forest cockroach
(4) The rust-red flour beetle and the confused flour beetle
(5) The merchant grain beetle and the saw-toothed grain beetle
(6) The cigarette beetle and the drugstore beetle
(7) The rice weevil and the granary weevil
(8) The pharaoh ant and the common black ant
History of the dark flour beetle
Pests in bird's nests
Mould fauna
The Look and Behaviour of pests
Insect appearance
Internal
Insect development
Insect senses
Behaviour
Water and Moisture
Temperature
What insects live off and live in
The Air
Mites
Bug Indentification
The various species
Mites
The flour mite
The sugar mite
The common house mite
The Lardoglyphus zacheri
The prune mite
The cheese mite
The house dust mite
The Cheyletus eruditus
Silverfish
The Silverfish
The firebrat
Cockroaches
The German cockroach
The Oriental cockroach
The brown-banded cockroach
The American cockroach
The extermination of cockroaches
Crickets
Earwigs
Booklice
Butterflies
The Mediterranean flour moth
The warehouse moth
Tropical warehouse moth
The brown house moth
The Indian meal moth
Grain beetles
The saw-toothed grain beetle
The merchant grain beetle
The rust-red grain beetle
Flour beetles
The yellow mealworm beetle
The lesser mealworm beetle
The dark flour beetle
The confused flour beetle
The rust-red flour beetle
The bolting cloth beetle
Furniture beetles
The drugstore beetle
The cigarette beetle
Bostrychidae
The lesser grain borer
True weevils snout beetles
The granary weevil
The rice weevil
The corn weevil
Bean weevils
The common bean weevil
The coffee bean weevil
Skin beetles
The bacon beetle
The dermestid beetle
The leather beetle
The khapra beetle
The reesa vespulae
Chequered beetles
The red-legged ham beetle
The red-breasted copra beetle
The black-legged ham beetle
Spider beetles
The Australian spider beetle
The white-marked spider beetle
The golden spider beetle
The smooth spider beetle
Plaster beetles
Flies
The common house fly
The lesser house fly
Blowflies
The grey flesh fly
The cheese skipper
Fruit flies
Hymenoptera
The common black ant
The pharaoh ant
Wasps
Birds
The domestic pigeon
The house sparrow
Prevention and control of birds
Rodents
The house mouse
The yellow-necked mouse
Mouse prevention
Mouse control
The brown rat
The black rat
Rat prevention
Rat control
Imaginary pests
Niches of food pests
A: The Waste Niche
B: The seed niche
C: The dead plant niche
D: The sugary excrement niche
E: The carrion niche
Prevention and Control, Integrated Control
A. Inspection of the company and its environment
The environment
The premises
Examination of raw materials and food on site
Sampling
Laboratory methods for detection of pests in food
B. Statement of the problem
C. Prevention and control
1. Proper organisation of the company
2. Proper operation
3. Exclusion, proofing buildings
4. Packaging
5. Non-chemical control measures
6. Chemical control
Resistance
D: Effective monitoring and communication
Appendix
Literature
Extermination with poison
International trade
Colouration of small, pale animals
Index

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