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Sci Tech
Control of cigarette beetle in stored grains
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Adults are light brown in colour
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The cigarette beetle is the most destructive insect pest of stored products such as ginger, herbal tea products, tobacco, turmeric and chllies.
Affects export
The damage by the beetle results in the quantitative and qualitative losses of the product and adulteration by excreta, dead beetles and other waste products which significantly affect the export chances of the commodity.
The eggs are oval shaped and creamy white in colour and are laid on the surface of stored material. They hatch in 9 to 14 days.
Four larval stages
The insect generally completes four larval instars before pupation.
Larval period ranges from 17 to 29 days and the pupal period varies from 2 to 8 days.
The adult beetle is light brown in colour. The insect attacks a wide variety of stored food products.
The attack of this beetle deteriorates the quality and reduces the nutritional and medicinal values of the products.
Probe traps
Monitoring of the insect presence is the basic and preliminary step in the successful management of the beetle. Installation of probe traps will help in this regard.
Periodical microscopic observation of the stored product samples for the presence of beetle’s eggs and the observation of randomly collected samples of 100 gm through the hand lens for the presence of larvae and adult beetles will be very much helpful.
Fumigation
Fumigation with aluminium phosphide tablets is effective in controlling the beetle.
Methyl bromide fumigation can be done only when the stored products are to be exported.
ZADDA KAVITHARAGHAVAN & S. MOHAN
Department of Agricultural Entomology Tamil Nadu Agricultural University, Coimbatore Tamil Nadu
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