Disinfestation of insect pests in stored agricultural materials using microwave and radio frequency heating: A review

ABSTRACT

This article provides a comprehensive review of the disinfestation of insects in stored agricultural materials using radio frequency (RF) and microwave (MW) heating. It covers RF and MW disinfestation principles; measurement methods and effects of the operating parameters on dielectric properties; comparison between RF and MW and their effect on the mortality of different insects, quality of the host materials after disinfestation, and heating uniformity; and disinfestation economics. This review shows that RF and MW disinfestation are useful without affecting the quality of the host materials. However, RF heating is being preferred over MW heating for its higher selective heating characteristic.

KEYWORDS:

• Dielectric properties
• disinfestation
• grains
• insect pests
• microwave
• radio frequency

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture and the Western Grains Research Foundation, Saskatchewan, Canada, for their financial supports through the Agriculture Development program (ADF #20130219) for this study.

Additional information

Funding

We gratefully acknowledge the Saskatchewan Ministry of Agriculture and the Western Grains Research Foundation, Saskatchewan, Canada, for their financial supports through the Agriculture Development program (ADF #20130219) for this study.