Sweet corn, Zea mays L., is attacked by a variety of insect pests that can cause severe losses to the producer. Current control practices are largely limited to the application of broad-spectrum insecticides that can have a substantial and deleterious impact on the natural enemy complex. Predators have been shown to provide partial control of sweet corn pests when not killed by broad-spectrum i...

Grasses are traditionally considered as wind pollinated, however, field observations confirmed frequent insect visits to grass flowers, suggesting insect pollination. Fruit and seed predators inflict heavy losses to cereals and millets during their growth, maturation and storage. The actual factors guiding insects and predators to grass flowers, fruits and seeds are not clear. Here, we report a...

Enzymatic browning is a colour reaction occurring in plants, including cereals, fruit and horticultural crops, due to oxidation during postharvest processing and storage. This has a negative impact on the colour, flavour, nutritional properties and shelf life of food products. Browning is usually caused by polyphenol oxidases (PPOs), following cell damage caused by senescence, wounding and the ...

In rice production, pest invasion is considered as the most challenging task for crop technicians and farmers. Pest invasion can cause serious losses and affect the income of farmers. It is then important to assess their density for pests forecasting decision making. Existing identification techniques of these species comprise of using different traps to detect their presence. However, these tr...

A.H. Paterson (ed.), Genomics of the Saccharinae, Plant Genetics and Genomics: Crops and Models 11, DOI 10.1007/978-1-4419-5947-8_16, © Springer Science+Business Media New York 2013 Abstract Sustainable production of sorghum, Sorghum bicolor (L.) Moench, depends on effective control of insect pests as they continue to compete with humans for the sorghum crop. Insect pests are a major constraint...

Phenolic esters have attracted considerable interest due to the potential they offer for peroxidase catalysed cross-linking of cell wall polysaccharides. Particularly, feruloyl residues undergo radical coupling reactions that result in cross-linking (intra-/intermolecular) between polysaccharides, between polysaccharides and lignin and, between polysaccharides and proteins. This review addresse...

A major problem in the production, storage and marketing of nuts is the infestation of insect pests such as codling moth, naval orangeworm and Indian meal moth. Present and potential quarantine treatments for both domestic and international nut markets include chemical fumigation, ionizing radiation, controlled atmosphere, cold treatment, conventional hot air or water heating and dielectric hea...

The most consummate wood feeders are the billions of termites throughout the world that literally devour thousands of tons of woody debris every year in forests as well as lumber in buildings. Many of our most serious and damaging insect pests are the bark beetles and wood borers that feed on the parts of trees for which they are named. Even mammals ranging in size from mice to elephants consum...

On the market since 1996, genetically modified plants expressing an insecticidal toxin (Cry toxin stemmed from Bacillus thuringiensis) target several lepidopteran and coleopteran pests. In this study, we assessed the impact of two varieties of Bt maize producing different toxins (Cry1Ab or Cry1Fa, respectively) on the biology of a storage pest: Plodia interpunctella (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Pyral...