While developing radio frequency heat treatments for dried fruits and nuts, we used a heating block system developed by Washington State University to identify the most heat-tolerant life stage of red flour beetle, Tribolium castaneum (Herbst), and to determine its thermal death kinetics. Using a heating rate of 15°C/min to approximate the rapid heating of radio frequency treatments, the relative heat tolerance of red flour beetle stages was found to be older larvae > pupae and adults > eggs and younger larvae. Lethal exposure times for temperatures of 48, 50, and 52°C for the most heat-tolerant larval stage were estimated using a 0.5th order kinetic model. Exposures needed for 95% mortality at 48°C were too long to be practical (67 min), but increasing treatment temperatures to 50 and 52°C resulted in more useful exposure times of 8 and 1.3 min, respectively. Red flour beetle was more sensitive to changes in treatment temperature than previously studied moth species, resulting in red flour beetle being the most heat-tolerant species at 48°C, but navel orangeworm, Amyelois transitella (Walker), being most heat tolerant at 50 and 52°C. Consequently, efficacious treatments for navel orangeworm at 50–52°C also would control red flour beetle.
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1 December 2004
Thermal Death Kinetics of Red Flour Beetle (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae)
J. A. Johnson,
K. A. Valero,
S. Wang,
J. Tang
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Journal of Economic Entomology
Vol. 97 • No. 6
December 2004
Vol. 97 • No. 6
December 2004
dried fruits
heat treatments
radio frequency
red flour beetle
tree nuts