Management of Red Flour Beetle by Medicinal Plant Extracts

Global food security issues are increasing with the passage of time. Stored products are prone to insect pest infestation and a possible insect attack can deteriorate the quality as well as the quantity of attacked commodity resulting in significant decrease in volume, substantial weight loss and reasonable germination damage. Deliberate use of insecticides and fumigants pose environmental and health issues. Natural plant extracts, being rich in natural secondary metabolites, present a safer solution of this problem. Recent study focused on the toxicological, fumigant, repellent and growth regulatory potential of ten plant extracts against the stored product beetle, Tribolium castaneum.