D3056: Deployment of insecticide netting to improve fumigation efficacy in food facilities

Insecticide netting has successfully been used to impair mobility and prevent infestation by stored product beetles. Understanding how to integrate insecticide netting with existing IPM tactics at food facilities can improve the protection of commodities, while increasing sustainability. One aspect of the interaction between insecticide netting and stored product beetles that is poorly understood is how brief exposure may affect olfaction to important semiochemicals. In this experiment, we exposed warehouse beetle adults for 1 min to insecticide netting with 0.4% deltamethrin or control netting without insecticides and then evaluated mobility in response to food cues (e.g. using 0.01 g of flour) or with conspecific sex pheromones. Mobility was assessed using Ethovision coupled with video-tracking in the laboratory with a total of n = 16 replicate individuals per treatment. We found that 1) movement was generally depressed after exposure to insecticide netting compared to the control netting, and 2) exposure to insecticide netting interrupted normal olfaction and orientation towards food and pheromone cues. Warehouse beetle became unresponsive to food and pheromone cues, and took several-fold longer to locate these cues after exposure to insecticide netting compared to control netting. Overall, our study illuminates the importance of other IPM tactics for mediating olfaction and taxis to semiochemicals in the postharvest environment.