However, pesticides are harmful to the environment and will be phased out of agricultural use in the coming years (Murphy, Curtis, personal communication, July 22, 2002).
New methods in post-harvest infestation control of P. Interpunctella are now being explored as alternatives to the use of harmful pesticides. These alternative experimental methods include carbon dioxide fumigation, alterations in temperature, introduction of other insect species that could be deleterious to the behavior of the moth, and manipulating atmospheric pressure in the grain storage facilities (Highly, Wright, Banks, and Champ, 1994). A current.
method that is being researched by the United States Department of Agriculture is the use of light as a possible mean in controlling P. Interpunctella infestations in warehouses.
The behavior of insects subjected to the exposure of various wavelengths in the visible spectrum has been studied extensively (Ball, 1958). There have been many studies in the past that have dealt with the effect light has on certain insects, for example Grapholitha molesta (oriental peach moth) was found to prefer blue or violet light when it was exposed to different colors of the visible spectrum (Peterson and Haeussler, 1928). Similarly another laboratory study found that codling moths, Carpocapsa pomonella were stimulated into normal oviposition from violet light than any other color in the visible spectrum (Headlee, 1932). A study on the silkworm, Bombyx mori also showed that like the codling and oriental peach moths the activity and development of the silkworm were the greatest under violet light (Kogure, 1933). In all three studies shorter wavelengths such as blue and violet were more preferable to the insects than longer wavelengths such as red light, in fact the studies showed that oviposition was abnormal (Headlee 1932), inactivity was the highest (Kogure, 1933), and there was fewer migration to the red bands of the spectrum (Peterson and Haeussler, 1928).
