Ozone technology in the post-harvest storage environment

An environmentally safe alternative is needed to control insect pests in stored raw grains. Ozone is an excellent alternative to currently available products. Additional information is needed to make this technology effective in treating under semicontinuous flow applications. This research will address many of the issues associated with broadening the applicability of ozone as a post-harvest control strategy. The first part of this research examined the efficacy of high doses of ozone on insects (50 ppm-1800 ppm) and ultimately determined the concentration-time product needed to achieve 100% mortality. Because this system allows the possibility of survivorship of insects, sub-lethal dose data was needed to determine the effects of a sub-lethal treatment of ozone on insect populations (growth and reproduction). Part two of this research examined the effects of this sub-lethal dose by looking at (1)the effects on population growth, (2) population rebound after 18 weeks, and (3)oviposition. The third part of this experiment was performed in an experimental field situation