Management of Rhyzopertha dominica (Fab.) by Hermetic Bags and Impact on Quality Attributes of Stored Wheat

Wheat is one of the most important cereal crop, undergoes huge economic losses during storage by insect-pest infestations especially Rhyzopertha dominica. Management with chemical insecticides led to development of resistance among insect-pests of stored grains including R. dominica, which threatens its status as a reliable fumigant. So, it arises the need to explore some alternative insect-pest control. Keeping in view for exploring the alternatives, hermetic storage bags (HSBs) viz. HSB-1, HSB-2, HSB-3 were compared against traditional storage bags viz. Polypropylene woven and Jute bag to manage R. dominica under natural and artificial infestation conditions in stored wheat for a period of 180 days. The results revealed that no F₁ progeny emergence of R. dominica was observed under natural condition, while little emergence till 90 days of storage under artificial condition in all the hermetic bags. On comparing with traditional PP woven and jute bags, emergence and multiplication of R. dominica was observed throughout the storage period. Further, all the hermetic storage bags showed very less grain damage, weight loss along with maintaining grain moisture content and germination rate of wheat when compared to traditional bags under both the conditions throughout the storage period. Among gas exchanges, hermetic bags had maximum CO₂ with more depleted level of O₂, while atmospheric level of CO₂ and O₂ was observed in traditional bags. Comparison of all the hermetic bags showed HSB-3 is the best option to manage R. dominica along with maintaining other quality parameters with least gas exchange for long term storage of wheat. Thus, hermetic bags offer agricultural businesses a dependable, affordable, and environmentally responsible alternative that helps them protect their harvests and increase their profitability.