Necrobia rufipes (De Geer) Infestation in Pet Food Packaging and Setup of a Monitoring Trap

Abstract

Necrobia rufipes (De Geer) (Coleoptera: Cleridae), also known as the red-legged ham beetle, is a newly emerging pest of pet food stores, causing apprehension among producers worldwide. Concerns about this pest are exacerbated by the lack of information about infestation modalities in pet food, while specific monitoring tools are missing. Considering that adequate pet food packaging could limit N. rufipes infestations, information about the penetration modalities in commonly used pet food packaging is needed. Moreover, the development of appropriate monitoring instruments is urgent to detect pest presence early and to reduce chemical treatments for its control. In this paper, the adults’ and larvae’s ability to enter into pet food packaging was evaluated. Furthermore, to develop monitoring traps, behavioral bioassays were done: (1) testing two different commercial adhesive surfaces, one generally used in mouse glue traps (MG), and the other used in cockroach glue traps (CG), to evaluate their different abilities in avoiding insects’ escape; (2) screening different molecules, typical of the substrates attacked by N. rufipes, as candidate food attractants for this pest: methyl cyclopentenolone (MCP), squalene (SQ), and stearic acid (SA). The results show that N. rufipes adults and larvae enter into packaging through the air vent valves on the bottom, suggesting that a way to improve the packaging to prevent insect infestation would be to modify these points of weakness. Laboratory tests show that the different bioassayed glues have strong differences in the ability to retain the caught insects, with MG being more effective than CG. The behavioral bioassay indicated that MCP and SQ attract N. rufipes adults in olfactometer. Finally, the results of dual-choice arena bioassays show that among the candidate attractant tested, a mixture of pet food (PF) and MCP elicited the strongest attraction in N. rufipes adults. These results encourage further experiments with the use of an MG adhesive trap loaded with a mixture of PF+MCP to test the effectiveness of such a tool for monitoring N.rufipes in pet food industries and warehouses.

Towards developing areawide semiochemical‐mediated, behaviorally‐based integrated pest management programs for stored product insects

“…Increasing the number that are commercially available would be a good first step in allowing for the development and evaluation of behaviorally‐based tactics. There is strong interest in developing behaviorally‐based tactics for a variety of species, including for biosurveillance of the quarantined Trogoderma granarium (Everts) 112–114 and an emerging pest of concern to industry, red‐legged ham beetle, Necrobia rufipes (De Geer) 115 . In some cases, it may be not be commercially feasible to produce a particular kind of pheromone if there is not a robust market for it.…”

“…There is strong interest in developing behaviorally-based tactics for a variety of species, including for biosurveillance of the quarantined Trogoderma granarium (Everts) [112][113][114] and an emerging pest of concern to industry, red-legged ham beetle, Necrobia rufipes (De Geer). 115 In some cases, it may be not be commercially feasible to produce a particular kind of pheromone if there is not a robust market for it. However, increased and close collaboration among government, 116 Finally, there is still a need for novel, improved stimuli to manipulate the behavior of stored product insects.…”

Chemical Composition and Evaluation of Insecticidal Activity of Calendula incana subsp. maritima and Laserpitium siler subsp. siculum Essential Oils against Stored Products Pests

“…Lasioderma serricorne , the cigarette beetle, is a cosmopolitan polyphagous pest dangerous in the food and tobacco industry in many regions of the world [ 34 ]. Necrobia rufipes , commonly named the red-legged ham beetle, is a pest of stored products of animal origin, and its infestations are an increasing problem for the pet food industry [ 35 ]. The economic damage determined by these species is both quantitative due to substrate weight loss caused by insect feeding and qualitative due to product alterations such as loss of nutritional and aesthetic value, increased levels of rejects in the grain mass, and loss of industrial characteristics [ 36 , 37 ].…”