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Insects
Special Issues
Controlling Insect Pests in Postharvest Agricultural Products Using Non-Chemical Methods
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Controlling Insect Pests in Postharvest Agricultural Products Using Non-Chemical Methods

A special issue of Insects (ISSN 2075-4450). This special issue belongs to the section "Insect Pest and Vector Management".

Deadline for manuscript submissions: 31 October 2025 | Viewed by 1085

Special Issue Editors

Prof. Dr. Shaojin Wang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
College of Mechanical and Electronic Engineering, Northwest A&F University, Yangling 712100, China
Interests: inactivating pathogens and controlling pests in agricultural products using microwave/RF energy; thermal death kinetics of microorganisms and pests
Special Issues, Collections and Topics in MDPI journals
Dr. Liling Yang

E-Mail Website
Guest Editor
Agricultural Mechanization Institute, Xinjiang Academy of Agricultural Sciences, Urumqi 830091, China
Interests: controlling pests in agricultural products using RF energy

Special Issue Information

Dear Colleagues,

Post-harvest disinfestation is essential for the international and domestic commerce of agricultural products. However, current methods used in the industry rely on chemical fumigants that are either harmful to the environment or human health. The processing industries face a major challenge in meeting more stringent regulatory restrictions and in addressing ever-increasing public concern over health and environment. The goal of this Special Issue is to develop environmentally friendly, safe, cost effective, and efficient methods for controlling insect pests in post-harvest products. This Special Issue is trying to focus on recent developments and applications of non-chemical methods, such as conventional heating, radio frequency heating, microwave, irradiation, controlled atmosphere, and low pressure. This Special Issue will provide major methods, research strategies, and treatment protocols used in the developments of environmentally friendly disinfestation technology based on non-chemical methods.

Prof. Dr. Shaojin Wang
Dr. Liling Yang
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

Manuscripts should be submitted online at www.mdpi.com by registering and logging in to this website. Once you are registered, click here to go to the submission form. Manuscripts can be submitted until the deadline. All submissions that pass pre-check are peer-reviewed. Accepted papers will be published continuously in the journal (as soon as accepted) and will be listed together on the special issue website. Research articles, review articles as well as short communications are invited. For planned papers, a title and short abstract (about 100 words) can be sent to the Editorial Office for announcement on this website.

Submitted manuscripts should not have been published previously, nor be under consideration for publication elsewhere (except conference proceedings papers). All manuscripts are thoroughly refereed through a single-blind peer-review process. A guide for authors and other relevant information for submission of manuscripts is available on the Instructions for Authors page. Insects is an international peer-reviewed open access monthly journal published by MDPI.

Please visit the Instructions for Authors page before submitting a manuscript. The Article Processing Charge (APC) for publication in this open access journal is 2600 CHF (Swiss Francs). Submitted papers should be well formatted and use good English. Authors may use MDPI's English editing service prior to publication or during author revisions.

Keywords

  • disinfestation
  • thermal death kinetics
  • irradiation
  • dielectric heating
  • low pressure
  • controlled atmosphere

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Published Papers (2 papers)

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Research

10 pages, 911 KiB  
Article
Life Table Parameters and Digestive Enzyme Activity of Araecerus fasciculatus (Coleoptera: Anthribidae) Feeding on Different Stored Products
by Lingyan Jian, Yuping Yang, Songhai Xie, Yibin Lou, Ling Chen, Fanglian Dai, Paraskevi Agrafioti, Yu Cao, Christos G. Athanassiou and Can Li
Insects 2025, 16(4), 428; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects16040428 - 18 Apr 2025
Viewed by 343
Abstract
Araecerus fasciculatus (De Geer, 1775) is an important stored-product pest worldwide. In this study, the development time, survival rate, oviposition, and digestive enzyme (α-amylase, cellulase, pepsin, and lipase) activities of A. fasciculatus fed on five commodities (coffee, jujube, maize, wheat, and [...] Read more.
Araecerus fasciculatus (De Geer, 1775) is an important stored-product pest worldwide. In this study, the development time, survival rate, oviposition, and digestive enzyme (α-amylase, cellulase, pepsin, and lipase) activities of A. fasciculatus fed on five commodities (coffee, jujube, maize, wheat, and kansui) were investigated. Our results showed that the developmental duration of A. fasciculatus from egg to adult was shortest on coffee beans (51.41 days) and longest on kansui (69.65 days). The survival rate of A. fasciculatus adults was lowest on kansui (42.22%) and highest on coffee beans (63.33%). Significant differences in fecundity were also observed, with the greatest number on coffee beans (80.78 eggs/female) and the lowest on kansui (50.43 eggs/female). Araecerus fasciculatus showed the greatest intrinsic rate of natural increase (rm) on coffee beans (0.141), followed by jujube (0.129), maize (0.117), wheat (0.105), and kansui (0.097). The net productive rate (R0) showed a similar trend to rm, with values of 48.42, 42.53, 35.39, 27.53, and 21.47, respectively, on these stored products. Although no significant differences were observed in the lipase activities when A. fasciculatus was fed on different stored products, activities of α-amylase, pepsin, and cellulase were highest on coffee beans and lowest on kansui. The variation in the population development of A. fasciculatus associated with different foods may be related to its digestive enzyme performance. These results indicated that coffee beans were the most suitable host food, while kansui was the least suitable for the development of A. fasciculatus. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Controlling Insect Pests in Postharvest Agricultural Products Using Non-Chemical Methods)
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13 pages, 4628 KiB  
Article
Effect of Processing Parameters on the Heating Uniformity of Postharvest Tobacco Leaves Subjected to Radio Frequency Disinfestations
by Jinsong Zhang, Yingqi Tian, Xin Ye, Zijun Mo, Rui Li and Shaojin Wang
Insects 2025, 16(2), 228; https://doi.org/10.3390/insects16020228 - 19 Feb 2025
Viewed by 490
Abstract
Uneven heating is the biggest obstacle to the application of radio frequency (RF) technology in insecticidal applications. Since many existing studies have focused on the RF heating uniformity of granular materials, few RF treatment solutions have been reported for leaf materials. To improve [...] Read more.
Uneven heating is the biggest obstacle to the application of radio frequency (RF) technology in insecticidal applications. Since many existing studies have focused on the RF heating uniformity of granular materials, few RF treatment solutions have been reported for leaf materials. To improve the RF heating uniformity of tobacco leaves, a combined RF-hot air treatment method was developed for disinfestation in this study. The experiments were conducted to determine the effects of three process parameters (electrode gap, sample thickness, and hot air temperature) on the RF heating rate and uniformity of tobacco leaves. The results showed that the heating rate of RF-hot air combined treatment increased with decreasing electrode gap but increased with increasing sample thickness and hot air temperature. The RF heating uniformity in tobacco leaves decreased with increasing heating rate but could be significantly improved with the conveyor movement. Considering the heating uniformity and heating rate, the material thickness of 60 mm and electrode gap of 110 mm were selected as optimal process parameters. The results of the study may provide a feasible method to improve the RF heating uniformity in tobacco leaves and potential applications for effective disinfestations. Full article
(This article belongs to the Special Issue Controlling Insect Pests in Postharvest Agricultural Products Using Non-Chemical Methods)
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