Pest Management Science (2019) 75, 390-395

Xiangbing Yang and Yong-Biao Liu (2019)
Nitric oxide fumigation for postharvest pest control on lettuce
Pest Management Science 75 (2), 390-395
Abstract:
BACKGROUND
The lettuce aphid, Nasonovia ribisnigri, and western flower thrips, Frankliniella occidentalis, are quarantine pests of lettuce in Asian markets and, therefore, require treatments on lettuce exported from USA to Japan and Taiwan, respectively. Nitric oxide (NO) is a newly discovered fumigant for postharvest pest control and has been demonstrated as safe to fresh fruit and vegetables. In this study, small-scale NO fumigations were conducted to determine effective treatments and large-scale confirmatory tests were conducted to determine the efficacy against N. ribisnigri and F. occidentalis on commercially packed lettuce. The safety of NO fumigation to postharvest quality of lettuce was also evaluated.
RESULTS
In small-scale experiments, complete control of N. ribisnigri was achieved in 3, 8, and 16 h fumigations with 2.0%, 1.0%, and 0.5% NO, respectively, at 2 °C on both iceberg and romaine lettuce. In a large-scale experiment, complete control of both N. ribisnigri and F. occidentalis was achieved in a 16 h fumigation with 0.5% NO at 2 °C. The fumigation treatment had no effect on either external or internal postharvest quality of lettuce at 14 days after treatment.
CONCLUSION
Nitric oxide fumigation was demonstrated to be effective against both N. ribisnigri and F. occidentalis and safe to lettuce quality in large-scale fumigations of commercially packed lettuce. The study suggests that NO fumigation has the potential to be an alternative treatment to methyl bromide for postharvest pest control on harvested lettuce.
(The abstract is excluded from the Creative Commons licence and has been copied with permission by the publisher.)
Link to article at publishers website
Database assignments for author(s): Xiang-Bing Yang

Research topic(s) for pests/diseases/weeds:
control - general

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Pest and/or beneficial records:

Beneficial	Pest/Disease/Weed	Crop/Product	Country	Quarant.
	Frankliniella occidentalis	Lettuce (Lactuca)
	Nasonovia ribisnigri	Lettuce (Lactuca)