Management of stored-grain insect pests by farmers or elevator managers should be based upon a knowledge of the grain storage environment and the ecology of insect pests. Grain storage facilities and practices, geographical location, government policies, and marketing demands for grain quality are discussed as factors influencing stored-grain insect pest management decisions in the United States. Typical practices include a small number of grain samples designed to provide grain quality information for segregation, blending and marketing. This low sampling rate results in subjective evaluation and inconsistent penalties for insect-related quality factors. Information on the efficacy of insect pest management practices in the United States, mainly for farm-stored wheat, is discussed, and stored-grain integrated pest management (IPM) is compared to field-crop IPM. The transition from traditional stored-grain insect pest control to IPM will require greater emphasis on sampling to estimate insect densities, the development of sound economic thresholds and decision-making strategies, more selective use of pesticides, and greater use of nonchemical methods such as aeration. New developments in insect monitoring, predictive computer models, grain cooling by aeration, biological control, and fumigation are reviewed, their potential for improving insect pest management is discussed, and future research needs are examined.

Management of stored wheat insect pests in the USA

Insect population dynamics in commercial grain elevators

The progress in understanding the stored grain ecosystem is reviewed. Succession of insects, insect movement and distribution, interaction among insects and microflora, and the development of hot spots inside stored grain ecosystems are evaluated. Based on these case studies, we examined the understanding of the stored grain ecosystem from the view of ecosystem approach. To understand the storage grain ecosystem, integration of the parts (the collected data under small scale laboratory conditions) into a usable whole (the entire grain storage ecosystem) is required. To verify the synthesised whole, both small and full scale tests are required. To manage the stored grain ecosystem, understanding the ecosystem and application of ecosystem approach are the keys.

https://link.springer.com/content/pdf/10.1007%2Fs40003-012-0017-7.pdf

The Ecosystem Approach to Grain Storage

Acknowledgments INTRODUCTION Defining Ecology Changes Why Another Ecology Book? Who Are Ecologists? 1. THE BIG PICTURE Water and Energy: Life's Necessities The Origin of Life and of Atmospheric Oxygen Big Systems Lakes Lakes through the Seasons Oceans Dry Land How Independent Are Ecological Systems? 2. HOW DO SPECIES SURVIVE? Populations Individuals and Populations Species Diversity Species Extinction Are All Invasive Species Villains? 3. TWO MAJOR CURRENT PROBLEMS Global Warming and Endangered Species What Can Be Done About Global Warming? Protecting Endangered Species 4. APPLYING ECOLOGY Experts, Pseudoexperts, and How to Tell Them Apart The Importance of Being Natural and Vegetarian Medicine and Ecology as "Health" Sciences CONCLUSIONS Appendix References Index

A Citizen's Guide to Ecology

Insect monitoring is an important component of pest management. Economic losses due to insects and unnecessary pest management expenses can be avoided using insect monitoring and decision-making tools such as economic thresholds, predictive models, and expert systems to determine the best time to suppress pest populations. Research on insect monitoring and decision-making tools is as important in developing a successful integrated pest management (IPM) program as research on methods for suppressing pest populations. Better timing of pest suppression using monitoring and decision-making tools can improve the cost-effectiveness of pest management as much as developing better methods for suppressing insect populations. Other chapters in this book discuss the advantages and disadvantages of different methods for suppressing pest populations. This chapter focuses on methods for determining the best time to suppress pest populations. Establishing a threshold insect infestation level at which population suppression prevents economic losses is important because estimation of actual insect density or damage is more time consuming and expensive than classifying insect populations or their damage (Subramanyam et al. 1997). Models forecasting insect population density from grain temperature and moisture can be used to predict the best time for monitoring or suppressing pest populations (Hagstrum 1994). Expert systems developed for management of stored-product pests (Flinn and Hagstrum 1990a, Longstaff 1997) use computer simulation models to help make an informed pest management decision.

Monitoring and Decision Tools

The distribution of insects in a wheat‐filled large concrete silo was studied by drawing grain samples from the whole vertical depth by means of a special probe. The major insect species found were: Trogoderma granarium (Khapra beetle), Rhyzopertha dominica (Lesser grain borer), and Tribolium castaneum (Red flour beetle). Maximum activity of all species was found on the grain surface although some insects were found at all depths in varying numbers. Breeding activity of major insect pests was detected by incubating grain samples and then counting the number of emerged insects. Maximum emergence of T. granarium and R. dominica was observed in nearly all grain depths in October to November and July to November, respectively. Maximum emergence of T. castaneum was noted in almost all grain depths during August. Breeding activity of all species was mainly restricted to the grain surface and top grain layers during the months of November and December.

Mohammad Sajjad Ahmad

Papers

Dispersion of stored grain insect pests in a wheat‐filled silo

Effect of some Bacillus Species Combined with Chemical Resistance Inducers on Control of Pea Damping-off and Root-rot Diseases