Control Methods for Confused Flour Beetles

Hello,

I have an old machine in my bakery and it's been notorious for harboring CFB's. Any suggestions on how to alleviate the issue?

This probably involves a full tear down of this machine.

You will need to find all the CFB hide-outs and thoroughly clean it. You will need to get maintenance to seal up any cracks that allow flour to drift into the back areas of the machine. That is where they will be drawn to, if you don't have a food source, they are less likely to be attracted to that machine.

EDITED to add: Otherwise, you will just need to clean that machine thoroughly more often, weekly, daily, etc.

Setanta

Frequent cleaning is a must.

However you will always have CFB accumulating as cleaning deep in the machine is very difficult, costs a lot, and believe me you will always miss a spot where larva and eggs exist. The best way forward is to eliminate the whole population one off (egg, larva and adult) with the use of heat treatment which is not toxic and allows you to carry on with all other operations at your production. After you can perform maintenance cleaning so as to keep the population low until the time comes to perform a thermal treatment again. We perform thermal treatment for similar problems at the food and tobacco industry minimum once per year but according to how well the machine is being cleaned that can go up to twice a year.

Aggelos

Frequent cleaning is a must.

 

However you will always have CFB accumulating as cleaning deep in the machine is very difficult, costs a lot, and believe me you will always miss a spot where larva and eggs exist. The best way forward is to eliminate the whole population one off (egg, larva and adult) with the use of heat treatment which is not toxic and allows you to carry on with all other operations at your production. After you can perform maintenance cleaning so as to keep the population low until the time comes to perform a thermal treatment again. We perform thermal treatment for similar problems at the food and tobacco industry minimum once per year but according to how well the machine is being cleaned that can go up to twice a year.

 

Aggelos

Hello and thank you for your reply. I am not familiar with thermal treatment, is it a task that can be completed in house or does it require outside contractors?

I would recommend you use a contractor.

For a heat treatment to be successful, you need a combination of time and temperature - for example 52 degress C for one hour. You need to achieve and maintain that temperature in the coldest spot as the insects will migrate away from the heat. In order to confirm that, a good contractor will use temperature sensors to ensure the correct temperature has been achieved throughout and for long enough to kill all the insects.

CFB is a tough one to control

The best option for bakeries and flour mills is a control program based on early detention, inspection of incoming raw material (Most of CBF enters a bakery in bagged flour), regular cleaning and 3 to 4 times a year shutdown cleaning and fumigation.

Heat treatment is an option but the duration and correct temparature is vital

Other option:

Thermal fogging

You should use a contractor. Vital for thermal treatment is re-circulation of warm air. At a temperature of above 50C all insect life stages are eliminated in minutes. It is then important to reach that temperature everywhere. This varies according to different materials. From my experience in performing thermal treatments 8 hours of continuous heating  is enough for big production lines, while 4 for smaller. However, if treating a wheat mill, I would maintain 55-60C for a minimum of 24 hours. Be careful to increase temperature from ambient to target at a certain rate per hour so as to avoid sudden diastolic forces that would create damages to machinery. The same for cool-down.