Pest management in a changing world: Challenges and triumphs in the food industry

Abstract: The direction of pest management in the food industry has changed over the past few years. These changes include reduced reliance on pesticides within the food processing and storage areas, integration of more biologically safe, ecologically sound, environmentally benign and residue free pest management tactics along with greater professionalism through training and education of members of the pest management industry. Elimination of key pesticides from the chemical registry, development of insect resistance to pesticides, along with diverse array of behavioral traits enabling stored product insects to successfully survive in man-made environments, posed challenges in the food industry.A holistic approach incorporating systemic tactics to regulate pests not only by integrating various management techniques but also employing proactive measures to eliminate pests by using effective design features in structures, processing equipment and packaging seems more appropriate for the current food industry. Monitoring and sampling, insecticides, biological control, physical control, semiochemicals and modified atmosphere are some of the tools that are available for the food industry to successfully manage pests.This paper summarizes mainly on mating disruption and mating delays as one of the non-chemical methods that can be useful to the food industry.