Ultralow oxygen treatment for postharvest control of western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis (Thysanoptera: Thripidae), on iceberg lettuce

Recent advances in development of ultralow oxygen treatment for postharvest pest control on perishable commodities

“…Pre-treatment cold storage of lettuce for 1 week prevented injuries to heartleaves by the 2-day ULO treatment. In comparison, lettuce without the pre-treatment storage sustained injuries to the heartleaves in a significant proportion of heads (Table 1) [17]. The study indicated that ULO treatment can be made safer to lettuce through pre-treatment storage to increase lettuce tolerance.…”

“…Mortality rate of thrips increases with decreased oxygen and increased temperature. Complete control of thrips was achieved in a 2-day treatment at 10°C and a 3-day treatment at 8°C [15]. ULO treatments for thrips control, however, caused injuries to lettuce heartleaves.…”

“…Western flower thrips are more tolerant than lettuce aphid to ULO treatment [15]. Both oxygen level and temperature have significant effects on thrips responses to ULO treatments with a much lower oxygen level of 0.003%.…”

“…ULO treatments for thrips control, however, caused injuries to lettuce heartleaves. The 2-day treatment at 10°C caused the least injury to lettuce heartleaves and injury became progressively more severe in 3-and 4-day treatments at decreased temperatures of 5 and 2°C, respectively (Table 1) [15]. Most injuries were in the form of a brown stain, similar to injuries caused by carbon dioxide [16].…”

“…The success of ULO treatments depends on types of pests and commodities. Black widow spiders are more susceptible to ULO treatments than any other insects [1,14,15,20]. This is likely due to their unique respiratory system.…”