Use of controlled atmosphere for pest control in climate chambers and silos

Abstract: The EcO2 Controlled Atmosphere treatment (CA) is an effective treatment to controlinsects and vermin in post harvest commodities, structures, silos, and container cargo (importedand exported and treated according Quarantine and Pre-shipment regulations). The CA principleis based on low-oxygen in combination with increased temperatures. The CA treatments arecommercially used world-wide and have gained acceptance from both governments andindustries as the non-toxic fumigant technology for a variety of applications. EcO2 has developedseveral CA applications that are available for the industry.As a pest control method CA has many advantages over traditional fumigants like no pestresistance can occur, products are free of residues and safe for people and the environment. Thetreatments are independent of atmospheric influences. Beside this, CA can be used for qualitypreservation purposes for long term storage of food and feed commodities. It does notcompromise the treated products in any way. In addition, installations equipped to carry out CAtreatments are yet available in 15 countries serving a wide variety of industries.The use of CA on post harvest commodities is growing rapidly and replacing chemicalfumigants like Phosphine more and more. The phase out of Methyl Bromide has pushed theincrease of world-wide Phosphine use. Phosphine is easy to use and affordable although thisproduct needs a long exposure time to be effective. Unfortunately the product is meetingincreased levels of pest resistance and requires more investments to be applied on an acceptablelevel.The CA treatments are applied in airtight climate controlled environments like climatechambers, barges or containers with the use of fixed or mobile installations. To apply CA inexisting silos, a pressure tests needs to be conducted in order to establish the level of gastightness of the silo.CA has shown to be effective in controlling insects in all life stages in a wide variety of postharvest commodities, like for instance dried fruit, nuts, cocoa, tobacco, rice, seeds, spices, pulsesand cereals.