Insects radiation disinfestation

Dried fruits, vegetables, and nuts, as well as dried fish, an important source of protein in many developing countries, are also good candidates for radiation disinfestation. Application of 0.2-0.7 kGy doses, if they have been suitably packaged to prevent reinfestation, can eliminate the insect problem from these products that cannot be elfectively disinfested by either chemical or physical means other than irradiation. 

Brower, J.H. and Tilton, E.W. (1985) The potential of irradiation as a quarantine treatment for insects infesting stored food commodities. In Radiation Disinfestation of Food... 

The doses applied for the widely used microbial decontamination by irradiation of spices, dried herbs, and dry vegetable seasonings (see Sec. 4.9) are much higher than the disinfestation doses. Thus radiation decontamination of these commodities is more than enough to kill also any insects eventually infesting them. 

Radiation treatment can significantly contribute to the variety of means for quarantine disinfestation in the international trade to prevent the importation of invasive nonnative insects with food and agricultural commodities that can harbor them. The use of irradiation disinfestation in quarantine treatment has great potential especially against fruit flies. A number of past quarantine treatments have been recently prohibited, e.g., fumigation with ethylene dibromide. 

Pretreatment and Conditioning. Since radiation doses for insect disinfestation have little or no effect on the fungi on fruits and vegetables, fungicidal or thermal treatment prior to irradiation is often beneficial and necessary to control fungal diseases. 

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