Microwave Radiation as a Pesticide Alternative for Stored-Products

Concerns of the U.S. government over the imapct of pesticides on human health and the environment have prompted a search for alternatives for the control of insects in stored products. The proposed project will reassess the economics and practicability of using high-power microwave radiation as an alternative means to control insects in stored-products. Preliminary experiments at a frequency of 10.6 GHz on Sitophilus zeamais in wheat and Tribolium castaneum in flour indicate that the selective heating of those insects increases at frequencies above 2.45 GHz and does not decrease monotonically as previously believed. This implies that hitherto unobserved loss phenomena exist in insects and that high mortality can be induced economically at the higher microwave frequencies. The proposed effort will extend the range of the previous experiments to confirm that a predicted optimum frequency exists in the microwave band and identify an optimum operating frequency within the constraints of CFR 47 (Part 2). These goals will be met by performing high-power tests at selected frequencies up to 58 GHz and statistically verifying relative effectiveness in producing insect mortality. Grain viability and quality of the treated product will also be determined.