Insect Pest Management in Stored Pulses: an Overview

Pulses, which constitute an important part in the daily diet of mostly the vegetarian population, suffer a great damage by insects during storage. In this review, different control measures such as chemical treatment, physical treatment, and biological control of insects in stored pulses are discussed in brief. Chemicals like methyl bromide, malathion, and dichlorvos are being phased out. In these circumstances, new age chemicals like carbonyl sulfide and sulfuryl fluoride are gaining acceptance. Carbon dioxide and biogas generated from cow dung can be used as fumigation measures. Natural products like vegetable oil, inert dusts, plant extracts like essential oils, lectins, proteins, and leaf powders, which have insecticidal and antimicrobial activity, have been used as fumigants for traditional storage worldwide. Simple technologies like sun drying and repeated sieving can be adopted by small-scale farmers and traders. Maintaining low oxygen, high carbon dioxide, or pure nitrogen atmosphere in the storage environment is also proving to be beneficial preventive methods. Hot air and irradiation are being used, while dielectric heating is still in the stage of development in many of the developed countries for insect control. Developing countries are beginning to consider the use of these methods to control stored product insects.