It appears many of our stored product insect colonies have become infected with a disease. Many of the colonies are reared in whole wheat flour and Brewer's Yeast, inside incubators. I am planning to destroy the contents of any rearing container showing signs of diseased insects and then autoclaving everything possible. Anything that cannot be autoclaved, will be washed or wiped down with 70% ethyl alcohol. Can anyone recommend any suggestions or comments?
Thank you!
Replies
What species are we discussing here? :)
Primarily Tribolium, about 5 different species.
I could be curious to know what disease it is...
Me too!
For surfaces and inside the incubators I would suggest to used Zerotol which is a peroxycompound close to the ones used in hospitals.
http://www.biosafesystems.com/product-hort-zerotol.html.
After everything is clean you have to adjust a good temperature - RH ratio that doesn't stimulate the pathogen growth but that doesn't hurt your colonies as well.
Hope this help
Thank you for the recommendation, I'll check into Zerotol.