Grain storage management: What are the main pests that attack stored grains? How to prevent crop loss?

Grain storage management | After working hard day and night, when a farmer sees a bountiful crop growing in his fields, his heart feels relieved. He feels that his hard work has been successful, but if the grain is not stored properly, then many types of pests can spoil this hard work.

Damages caused by pests in grain storage

You must have seen many times that weevils attack pulses, rice, wheat, gram, moong, peas at home, which eat the grains and make them hollow. Similarly, the grains stored in the storage house are also at risk from hundreds of insects. Due to the eating of these insects, a large part of the grain becomes unfit for consumption and cannot be used as seeds.

Along with this, the nutritional properties of this grain also decrease. Although there are hundreds of types of insects, but let us know about some main insects which usually cause more damage to the grain. After that we will give you important information related to grain storage management.

Rice weevil

This is a small insect of dark brown color, which looks like lice in hair. This weevil causes a lot of damage to the grain. Along with rice, it also affects wheat, maize, millet and other crops. The grain in which the moisture content is more than 16, there is a greater risk of weevil infestation. This weevil eats the grain and then that grain is no longer fit for human consumption. Also, if someone eats it, it is harmful for health.

Small Grain Borer

When it is an adult, this insect looks dark brown in colour, while both the larvae and the adults of the small grain borer are harmful. Whichever grain it infests, it eats it and turns it into flour, making it unusable. It eats the grain from inside and leaves only its peel.

Almond Moth

This dark brown insect affects the dry fruits kept in the storehouse the most. Its larvae are dangerous which enter inside the almond and make it hollow. The nuts infected by this insect are no longer fit for human consumption.

Rice Moth

If you keep a large quantity of rice at home, then after a long time you must have seen that a moth-like insect keeps flying over it or lives inside the rice box. This insect is grey in colour and the female insect lays eggs on the wall, grain sack or on the grain itself. The larvae of this insect are also harmful. Due to its effect, small clusters are formed inside the grain.

Dal Beetle

The adult insect is brownish red in colour with a yellow spot on it. This insect lays eggs on the grains stored in the store house like gram, moong, tur, lentils etc. Its proboscis is harmful which enters inside the pulse and eats it and makes it hollow. This insect eats only whole pulses.

Khapra Beetle

The larva of this insect is very soft. This insect causes a lot of damage to the grain. It is said that once this insect attacks during storage, its infection lasts for many years. That is, the grain will keep getting spoiled for years.

Wheat Khapra

The larva of this insect damages the grain. The infestation of this insect lasts throughout the year, but it causes more damage from July to October. The specialty of this insect is that it does not go inside the grain, but damages it from outside. When it becomes an adult, this insect becomes grayish brown in color. It damages wheat, rice, maize, sorghum, barley, etc.

How to protect grain from pests?

• Harvest the crop only when it is fully ripe in the fields so that there is no moisture in it.
• Clean the grain before storing it and dry it thoroughly in the sun.
• Clean the storage area thoroughly.
• Proper moisture is also necessary for storing the grain. Generally, there is no risk of pest infestation in grains with moisture up to 12 percent.
• To check the moisture of the grain before storing it, press its grains under the teeth, if it does not break easily, it means that it should not be stored.
• Clean the sack, box, drum, storeroom, etc. in which the grain is to be stored and dry it thoroughly in the sun.
• Pests will also not attack if wheat straw is mixed in the stored grain.
• Spray an insecticide called Deltamethrin on the walls of the store room. Mix 40 grams of insecticide in one liter of water and spray it.
• Placing completely dry leaves of Karanja, Bakan, Eucalyptus layer by layer on the grain and storing it prevents the pests from attacking it.