Data from long-term Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) pheromone trapping programs in two flour mills was used to evaluate the impact of structural fumigations (n = 23) on pest populations. The two mills differed in mean number of beetles captured and proportion of traps with captures of one or more beetles, but in one of the mills the mean number of beetles captured was reduced after implementing a more intensive integrated pest management program. Mean number of beetles per trap and proportion of traps with captures increased by 52.7 +/- 8.2 and 24.8 +/- 4.7% from one monitoring period to the next but decreased by 84.6 +/- 4.6 and 71.0 +/- 5.1% when fumigation occurred between periods, respectively. Mean number of beetles per trap and proportion of traps with captures immediately after fumigation were both positively correlated with number captured per trap and proportion of traps with captures in the monitoring period immediately before fumigation. Mean daily air temperature inside the mill fluctuated with the season, and although always warmer than the outside temperature, the relative difference varied with season. Relationship between inside and outside temperature could be explained well by an exponential equation with the parameters a = 20.43, b = 2.25, and c = -15.24 (r2 = 0.6983, which is 94% of the maximum r2 obtainable). Although outside temperature differed between spring and fall fumigations, inside temperature and reduction in beetle captures was not affected by season. A better understanding of pest populations and the impact of structural treatments within commercial food facilities is critical for improving the management of pest populations and for the adoption of methyl bromide alternatives.

Stored-product insects are a perennial problem in retail stores, where they damage and contaminate susceptible merchandise such as food products and animal feed. Historically, pest management in these stores has relied heavily on chemical insecticides, but environmental and health issues have dictated use of safer methods, and these require better monitoring. A monitoring procedure that employs an array of moth and beetle traps combined with spatial (contour) analysis of trap catch was tested in three department stores and two pet stores. The rate of capture increased with the level of infestation but was essentially constant over 4- to 5-d trapping periods. Contour analysis effectively located foci of infestation and reflected population changes produced by applications of the insect growth regulator (S)-hydroprene. The most abundant insects were Plodia interpunctella (Hiibner), Lasioderma serricorne (F.), Oryzaephilus mercator (Fauvel), Tribolium castaneum (Herbst), and Cryptolestes pusillus (Schönherr). The results indicate that contour analysis of trap counts provides a useful monitoring tool for management of storage pests in retail stores. It identifies trouble spots and permits selection, timing, and precision targeting of control measures to achieve maximum pest suppression with minimum pesticide risk. It permits managers and pest control operators to visualize pest problems over an entire store, to monitor changes over time, and to evaluate the effectiveness of control intervention. The contour maps themselves, along with records of control applications and stock rotation, provide permanent documentation of pest problems and the effectiveness of pest management procedures.

Colony defense by honey bees, Apis mellifera, is associated with stinging and mass attack, fueled by the release of alarm pheromones. Thus, alarm pheromones are critically important to survival of honey bee colonies. Here we report that in the parasitic relationship between the European honey bee and the small hive beetle, Aethina tumida, the honey bee's alarm pheromones serve a negative function because they are potent attractants for the beetle. Furthermore, we discovered that the beetles from both Africa and the United States vector a strain of Kodamaea ohmeri yeast, which produces these same honey bee alarm pheromones when grown on pollen in hives. The beetle is not a pest of African honey bees because African bees have evolved effective methods to mitigate beetle infestation. However, European honey bees, faced with disease and pest management stresses different from those experienced by African bees, are unable to effectively inhibit beetle infestation. Therefore, the environment of the European honey bee colony provides optimal conditions to promote the unique bee-beetle-yeast-pollen multitrophic interaction that facilitates effective infestation of hives at the expense of the European honey bee.alarm pheromone ͉ kairomone ͉ small hive beetle

In a wheat flour mill, seasonal trends in stored-product insect trap capture, relationships between trap captures inside and outside the mill, and between pheromone trap capture and product infestation, and the impact of fumigation on pest populations, were assessed. Mark-recapture was used to evaluate the potential for movement of insects outside the mill into the mill. For Plodia interpunctella (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae) and Trogoderma variabile Ballion (Coleoptera: Dermestidae), pheromone trap captures outside were higher than inside the mill, and when inside and outside trap captures were correlated, both indoor and outdoor trap captures tended to cycle according to a seasonal pattern; fumigations did not consistently influence pheromone trap captures, and in only one instance were they found in product samples. Mark-recapture data indicated that P. interpunctella was capable of entering the building from outside. Tribolium castaneum (Herbst) (Coleoptera: Tenebrionidae) trap captures, in contrast, tended to be lower outside compared to inside, followed a pattern of sharp decline after fumigation treatment, and then steadily increased (0.002-0.005 beetles/trap/ day) until the next fumigation. This pattern, other than potentially the rate of increase, was not impacted by season and outside trap capture levels. Tribolium castaneum was the primary species infesting the product. The information generated in this study provides some of the information needed to develop improved monitoring and management programs.