Two flour types (unpolished flour and polished one) and flour textures (grits and fine) of five cereal grains made up of millet, rice, wheat, sorghum and maize were evaluated under laboratory conditions for their susceptibility and progeny development in Tribolium castaneum in hot dry and cool humid seasons. T. castaneum thrived better during the cool humid season than the hot dry season. Polished flour was less susceptible to infestation and supported lower population of the beetles than unpolished flour. Index of susceptibility was 19.65–20.76% in unpolished flour and 18.89–19.76% in polished flour. The number of progeny that developed were 102.6–135.1 and 98.2–121.4 in unpolished and polished flours, respectively. Similarly, grit flour was significantly less susceptible than fine flour in both seasons. Rice, wheat and sorghum flours were less susceptible and supported significantly lower populations of T. castaneum than millet and maize flours in both seasons. Polished wheat flour supported least progeny number than the flour types of the other cereal grains. Conversely, significantly higher number of progeny developed in polished flour of millet and maize and unpolished flour of wheat. Millet fine flour and maize fine or grit flours were significantly more susceptible to infestation than flours of the other cereal grains.

Humidity is probably the most important abiotic factor influencing life cycles, distribution, survival, and population dynamics of stored product pests. Although most of these pests can complete their life cycles in any given relative humidity, their prolonged development time, as well as decreased emergence rate and fecundity, have been well documented in several previous studies. In the present study, we evaluated the changes in energetic substances (lipids, soluble carbohydrates, glycogen, and proteins) accumulated in different life stages of larvae and adults of Tribolium castaneum in response to different relative humidity levels (5, 12, 22, 30, 45, and 65%). The results showed that young larvae were more susceptible to low relative humidity levels and desiccation stress. Larvae tended to accumulate higher proportions of lipids during earlier stages while their energy content shifted towards proteins with an increase in their age. Adult beetles experienced a significant decrease in their protein content immediately after they initiated reproduction. The importance of these fluctuations in the biology of the red flour beetles was discussed in detail.

Presently, finding effective, simple, inexpensive, hygienic and safe pest control agents are the biggest challenges in management of stored product insects, where those features are available in most physical factors. The insecticidal efficiency of four diversified physical control agents (ultraviolet and microwave irradiations, thermal remediation and silica nanoparticles) were assayed against the most common coleopteran insect species ( Sitophilus oryzae L. and Tribolium castaneum Herbst) on stored wheat. Exposing tested insects to microwave irradiations (2450 MHz) for 25 sec gave preventive efficiency for stored material, which reached 97.68 and 99.02%, respectively. Sufficient exposure periods to kill 50% of the coleopteran adults (LT50%) were 13 and 14 sec, respectively. For effective control with UV radiations, S. oryzae should be exposed for 12 h and T. castaneum for 24 h. An exposure period of 24 h caused progeny reduction 95.24 and 89.72% and gave preventive efficiency of 94.25 and 93.37%, respectively. Values of LT50% were 56.76 and 74.04 h, respectively. Exposing infested samples of the tested species to 70oC for 10 min killed 100% of adults and caused complete cessation of egg laying. Furthermore, 65°C or 70°C caused full progeny reduction. The lowest level of stored product weight loss (1.15 and 1.35%, respectively) occurred at 70°C, where sufficient exposure temperatures to kill 50% of the coleopteran adults (LTD50%) were 60.95°C and 61.63°C, respectively. Synthetic silica nanoparticles (SSiNPs) were more toxic against the tested populations than bio-silica nanoparticles (BSiNPs) after 48–72 h. A concentration of 1.00 g kg–1 of tested silica nanoparticles caused significant reduction in adult populations, saved wheat grain vitality and gave least lost weights of flour (3.35–6.85%).

The present study was conducted to evaluate the insecticidal efficiency and safety of zinc oxide nanoparticles (ZnO NPs) and hydrophilic silica nanoparticles (SiO2 NPs) against: adults of rice weevil (Sitophilus oryzae L.); red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum Herbst.) and cowpea beetle (Callosobruchus maculatus F.) results showed that, both ZnO NPs and hydrophilic SiO2 NPs exhibited a significant toxic effect (df, F and p < 0.5) against S. oryzae and C. maculatus at the highest concentration while T. castaneum showed high resistance against the two tested materials. At the end of the experiment, recorded mortality was: 81.6, 98.3 and 58.3% at the highest concentration used for each insect (0.3, 2 and 8 gm ⋅ kg–1 of SNPs with C. maculatus, S. oryzae and T. castaneum, respectively), while mortality was 88.3, 100 and 38.3% at the highest concentration used for each insect (0.6, 2.5 and 8 gm ⋅ kg–1 of ZnO NPs with C. maculatus, S. oryzae and T. castaneum, respectively). Both tested materials caused high reductions in F1-progeny (%) with C. maculatus and S. oryzae. Histopathological examination of male mice livers showed hepatic architecture with congested blood sinusoids, binucleated hepatocytes nuclei, dilated central vein and margainated chromatin in some nuclei. Histopathological assessment of the lungs showed normal histoarchitecture. There were no differences in alveolar septa, bronchiolar and epithelium of the treated and untreated animals. Silica and zinc oxide nanoparticles have a good potential to be used as stored seed protectant alternatives if applied with proper safety precautions.

Plant derived α-amylase inhibitors are proteinaceous molecules that regulate the enzyme activity in plants and also protect plants from insect attack. In the current study, 28 accessions of 19 plant species were screened for their α-amylase inhibitory activity. The durum wheat varieties, Beni Suef-1 and Beni Suef-5, showed strong α-amylase inhibitory activity and were subjected to further purification studies using ammonium sulfate fractionation and DEAE-Sephadex G-25 column. The isolated inhibitors were found to be stable at temperatures below 80°C with maximum activity obtained at 40−50°C. Also, they were stable in a wide pH range (2−12). The ion exchange products of purified α-amylase inhibitors from Beni Suef-1 and Beni Suef-5 varieties showed a molecular weight of 16 and 24 kDa, respectively. The purified α-amylase inhibitors were tested against Tribolium castaneum and Callosobruchus maculatus both in vitro and in vivo. There was linear inhibition of α-amylase activity with increasing inhibitor concentration until saturation was reached. Beni Suef-5 α-amylase inhibitor was more potent against α-amylase with lower IC50 values than Beni Suef-1 α-amylase inhibitor except in the case of T. castaneum larva. Kinetics analysis revealed that Beni Suef-1 and Beni Suef-5 α-amylase inhibitors are non-competitive types of inhibitors with high affinity toward α-amylase of T. castaneum and C. maculatus. Results of the in vivo studies demonstrated that α-amylase inhibitors isolated from durum wheat, Beni Suef-1 and Beni Suef-5 varieties, were very effective in inhibiting the development of T. castaneum and C. maculatus and could be used for future studies in developing insect resistant transgenic plants approaching α-amylase inhibitor genes.