Technical notes. Destruction of sorghum midge in seed grain

Abstract

During 1951-1953, experiments on eliminating the midge from sorghum seed consignments were carried out. Treatments were based on the BHC dusting of seed grain recommended for the control of insect pests of stored grain (McDougall 1951), and the commercial fumigation of grain with carbon bisulphide (Caldwell 1947). A 2 lb. glass jar was used as the unit, and treatments were replicated 10 times. The grain included large numbers of aborted spikelets containing diapause larvae. At examination a specified number of aborted spikelets were selected at random and dissected. During the earlier examinations many of the larvae subjected to fumigation were bleached but otherwise appeared normal: none of these recovered.