Behavioral Responses of Rhyzopertha dominica to Different Food Bait Attractants in Paddy Storage Godown

This study aimed to evaluate behavioural response of Rhyzopertha dominica to crushed groundnut, wheat flour, cracked corn, sorghum flour, rice flour, pearl millet flour, rice bran, rice bran + rice flour, cracked sorghum and control were tested. It showed that wheat flour, cracked sorghum and pearl millet flour were found to be the more attractive. Cracked sorghum exhibited the highest attraction levels, with 26.11% at 5 days after placement (DAP). Wheat flour showed a relatively higher attraction, with 12.79% at 10 DAP. The attraction index is 11.25% at 15 DAP, over the observation period in pearl millet flour. Overall, the results indicate that cracked sorghum (85.07%), wheat flour (57.41%) and pearl millet flour (48.04%) are particularly attractive to R. dominica, while other food sources exhibit varying levels of attractiveness. The bait effectiveness was confirmed through testing, revealing varying ratios. Notably, the chamber retained the highest number of R. dominica which contained 2:1:1 ratio of wheat flour: sorghum flour: pearl millet flour. The effective baits were also test verified through four-arm olfactometer and found the highest orientation in the arm containing wheat flour and sorghum flour.