What’s Lurking Beneath? Grain Storage — The House Of Horrors
Stored grain is essential for the preservation of harvests, safeguarding crops for market and key in preserving profit for farmers and growers. Yet despite the meticulous attention given to crops from sowing to harvest, the risks and losses associated with poor grain storage management are often overlooked.
Grain storage can be a real house of horrors, with many systems harbouring insect pests known to destroy precious grain. In Australia, there are six or seven insect pests which are commonly found in stored cereal grains. These insect pests are small but mighty, and each one can cause significant damage to your grain.
Why Grain is Vulnerable to Infestation
Grain is a living organism, biologically a seed which naturally wants to germinate, sprout and grow. In storage, lack of attention to moisture and temperature can induce germination, spoiling the grain. The careful control of conditions in store is key to keep grain stable, add to this the micro-organisms and insects which are always present to some degree, and the challenge is on to prevent the deterioration and devastating losses that can occur in grain stores.
Unfortunately, the greater the quantity of grain, the greater the risk of infestations. What’s more, where grain is stored flat, or on the floor, the surface in contact with the air is much larger, making the grain more vulnerable to changes in ambient humidity than grain kept in vertical stores. Storage conditions, such as warmth and humidity, create an ideal environment for pests to thrive and reproduce.
The Most Unwanted: Insect Pests in Grain Stores
Common insect species associated with stored products can be classified as major (primary) or minor (secondary) pests.
Primary insect pests damage the whole, healthy grain while also raising temperature and moisture levels, creating suitable conditions for infestation by secondary insect pests and fungi.1 These resilient insects are experts at hanging around and originate from residual populations from previously stored grain. They are able to complete their entire life cycle in stored products. Primary pests include Saw-toothed Grain Beetle, Confused and Rust-Red Flour Beetle, Lesser Grain Borer, Flat Grain Beetle, and the Rice and Maize Weevil.
Secondary insect pests are those that are generally unable to cause damage to whole, sound and healthy product, but do considerable damage to stored product that have already been damaged by mechanical processes or by other pests. Secondary insect pests include flour mites, psocids, grain mites and stored grain moths.
Understanding the lifecycle of grain storage pests is crucial to implementing cost-effective and efficient treatments.
The K-Obiol® EC Combi Australia Technical Manual provides all the information needed to protect stored harvests. Containing decision tools and information on Integrated Pest Management (IPM), as well as guides on identifying key pests and making the choice between a protectant or fumigant. It’s a free and comprehensive resource for farmers, advisors and agents.
How to Banish Problem Pests
Effective pest control in grain stores starts well before the grain arrives. Empty stores can harbour persistent pests from previous harvests who are expert at lying undetected in cracks and crevices, waiting to re-infest incoming grain.
Thorough cleaning of grain stores and the application of structural treatments prior to the arrival of grain is vital but is still not enough in isolation. Effective grain store management relies on IPM.
IPM provides a program of prevention, monitoring, and control strategies to limit pest damage by the most economical means possible and with the least environmental impact. A well-planned IPM strategy for grain stores incorporates good hygiene, monitoring, and control with an informed choice on either protectant insecticide or fumigant.
Once grain is in storage, managing grain temperatures through cooling and aeration will make conditions less favourable for insect development. Regular monitoring is essential to understand the condition of the stored grain and to detect any insect development. Weekly monitoring means any problems are detected early and that control may be possible using a combination of cooling and drying. Insect monitoring traps are an effective way to assess if insects are present and if detected, use tools to identify the species present and adjust control measures to suit. It’s also important to monitor temperature and moisture levels, aim for grain temperatures of 20ºC in summer and under 15ºC in winter2.
K-Obiol is a synergised grain protectant designed to control stored product pests. Ideal for use on un-infested cereal grains such as malting barley, sorghum, rice, and maize, K-Obiol is effective in both sealed and unsealed storage systems.
Safeguard your harvest with K-Obiol, your trusted partner in grain management.
For more information on K-Obiol, visit the Envu website or speak to one of our team.
Always read the label before use.
