Vol. 10, Issue 11 (2021)

Author(s):
V Sathiamoorthy, M Balakrishnan, S Ganapathy and P Geetha

Abstract:
Hermetic storage system is an airtight non chemical method of storage used to store grain and to prevent losses due to infestation by insects and pests. Presence of insects causes both qualitative and quantitative losses to de-hulled millets. Tribolium castaneum is the major storage pest found during the storage of de-hulled millets. A study has been undertaken to evaluate the mortality rate of Tribolium castaneum at different pressure levels inside the hermetic storage bin. Two hermetic storage bins made of stainless steel (SS 304) each with 10 kg capacity were used for the study. One factor design is used to select the low pressure level (760 mm of Hg, 620 mm of Hg, 480 mm of Hg, 320 mm of Hg and 200 mm of Hg) for optimising the pressure to achieve highest insect mortality. Among the various pressure levels, 200 mm of Hg pressure achieved 100% mortality of Tribolium castaneum adult in 3 days and also reported the lowest average temperature of 27.8 ± 1.08 °C. It was also observed that the increase in pressure increases the period to achieve 100% mortality. The result showed that the pressure, temperature, relative humidity influences significantly (p< 0.01) the mortality of Tribolium castaneum adult in hermetic storage of de-hulled little millet.