Phosphine (PH3) fumigation has been widely used for controlling storedgrain insect pests, causing the development of resistance of stored-grain insect pests to phosphine. PH3 resistance in Sitophilus oryzae has been reported in Korea. However, PH3 resistance in Tribolium castaneum has not been reported yet. This study was conducted to determine susceptibilities of T. castaneum collected from five different domestic locations to PH3. The susceptibility to PH3 was investigated using the FAO fumigation method. All domestic T. castaneum individuals were controlled by PH3 at 0.04 g m-3. At 0.01 g m-3, T. castaneum collected from two domestic locations did not exhibit 100% mortality. A P45S point mutation in dihydrolipoamide dehydrogenase (dld) gene was found in a PH3-resistant strain of T. castaneum (Aus07), but not in five domestic stains or a PH3-susceptible strain (Aus10). No significant difference was found in dld or cyt-b5-r gene expression across all tested strains. However, the Gyeongju-collected strain of T. castaneum showed more than a 1.7-fold increase in cyt-b5-r expression compared to the Aus07 strain. cDNA sequence analysis revealed that P45S (C133T) in the dld gene was only present in Aus07. A characteristic single nucleotide polymorphism in the cyt-b5-r gene sequence was identified in the five domestic strains. This study suggests that it is necessary to continuously monitor PH3-susceptibility of T. castaneum in Korea to quickly identify resistant individuals and prevent the spread of PH3 resistance through rapid control.

The fumigation toxicity of carbonyl sulfide to T. castaneum as a storage grain pest was evaluated. Carbonyl sulfide (COS) is registered in Australia for microorganism present in soil, root and fertilizer. the fumigation activity of carbonyl sulfide was investigated in 12 L desiccator for 24 h exposure to eggs, larvae, pupae, adults of T. castaneum. Eggs and pupae were showed 87.3% and 95.6% mortality for 25 mg/L of COS, respectively. Larvae and adults were investigated with 80.0% and 100.0% mortality at 15 mg/L treatment, respectively. Therefore, the eggs of T. castaneum showed the highest tolerance to COS.

The fumigation activity of phosphine (PH3) to T. castaneum as a storage grain pest was evaluated. The lethal concentration time (LCT) value of each developmental stage (egg, early larva, late larva, pupa and adult) of T. castaneum was analyzed in 12 L desiccator. At the T. castaneum larva stages, exposure for 4 h showed low LCT value, especially in early stage larvae (LCT99 = 0.32 mg·h/L) which is very high susceptibility to PH3. However, T. castaneum eggs were observed very high tolerance to PH3 at LCT99 77.47 mg·h/L. Therefore, the fumigant activity of PH3 against T. castaneum can be found to be significantly different depending on developmental stage.

Mediterranean fruit fly, Ceratitis capitata, is one of the most important quarantine pest worldwide. Fruit flies cause serious damage on orchard, and also can cause quarantine problem to fruit exportation. Recently, because of global warming, there is threats of fruit fly invasion to Korea, especially to Jeju island. So there should be a anticipative research about fruit fly control. Many physical quarantine treatment methods, like heat treatment and low-temperature treatment, are developed to control quarantine pests. Recent researches indicate that low-temperature treatment shows good efficacy on several quarantine pests without phytotoxicity. In this trial, we’ve applied the low-temperature treatment on citrus at laboratory and pilot scale containers to validate efficacy and phytotoxicity. Egg and larvae stage of C. capitata was completely controlled after 5 days and 8 days low-temperature treatment at 0℃ respectively, and there was no phytotoxicity on citrus. These results indicate that the low-temperature treatment can be applied to control fruit fly on citrus fruit.