Archive for April, 2013
Food manufacturers: challenges with managing pests in food handling facilities
How do you manage pests in your facility? Firstly any food safety programme should have a comprehensive pest management system. This is designed to control hazards from pests at every operational step of the food handling process, including biological hazards such Salmonella. In the USA, a large outbreak of Salmonellosis was caused by contaminated peanut […]
Space spray fundamentals
Control of flying insects in a stored product environment is always a challenge. Owners of large warehouses often prefer a non-residual space treatment instead of spraying wall surfaces with a residual insecticide. The aim of a space spray is to control flying insects with very small droplets penetrating between stacks of produce. Control of insects […]
Stable flies: Locating, controlling and assessing the damage they cause
Livestock producers may not be able to see the difference between stable flies and other flies at a distance, but they can definitely see the stable flies’ effect on their cattle as the animals stop grazing and bunch together to minimize the number of bites they’re getting. Stable flies are among the most important arthropod […]
Managing current season needle necrosis in Christmas trees
Uptake and utilization of nutrients is the cornerstone of physiological health in green plants, but deficiencies in specific nutrients have long been known to play a crucial role in the development of disease caused by plant pathogens. Calcium, a poorly mobile nutrient with an important strengthening role in the structure of plant tissue is well […]
Improved plant health through nutrient uptake from foliar feeding
Inadequate uptake of specific nutrients, especially at high physiological demand times, can potentially cause well-established and wide ranging physiological syndromes, with symptoms specific to the crop and the nutrient in question. However there are well-established extra disease dimensions where microbial pathogens can take advantage of a weakened and damaged plant structure. While sustained soil fertility […]
Improved stink bug trapping methods
Baited black traps in a pyramid shape attract significantly more brown marmorated stink bugs than other traps, according to Agricultural Research Service (ARS) scientists. Evaluating stink bug responses to different visual stimuli may help manufacturers design better traps for monitoring the bugs. Entomologist Tracy Leskey at the ARS Appalachian Fruit Research Station in Kearneysville, W.V., […]
Quality control for stored coffee and cocoa
Many commodities are harvested, stored and sold as seed but coffee and cocoa are unique in the nature of on-farm primary processing and the condition of the commodities produced. The sequential steps in on-farm processing for coffee (wet or dry processing) and cocoa (fermentation and drying) are essential for the manufacture of high quality coffee […]
PestEx 2013 to be the largest ever UK pest exhibition
Following a complete sell-out of exhibition space, BPCA had to work with the exhibition hall to incorporate extra stands to meet exhibitor demand at PestEx 2013, which this year takes place on 10 and 11 of April at the ExCel Centre in London Docklands. Promising to be the biggest ever UK exhibition, BPCA Chief Executive […]
