ABSTRACT
Fumigation with chemical fumigants is the primary quarantine treatment method. Fumigants are effective chemical control agents because most are highly toxic, economical to use, easy to apply, and diffuse rapidly. Quarantine treatments that use fumigation as a single treatment to control arthropods of regulatory concern are developed from efficacy testing data. Quarantine treatments that utilize chemical fumigants must not leave undesirable residues in the commodity or liberate gas concentrations from packaging materials after treatment. Fumigations developed as quarantine treatments are investigated in two stages: basic tests and large-scale efficacy tests. Fumigant residues in the commodity are determined immediately after fumigation and intervals after treatment. The commodity is infested with the least susceptible stage to fumigation and fumigated in shipping containers of the type that will be exported to or from the US Controls must be used for each replicate of the large-scale test. Large-scale tests are used to confirm the efficacy of the quarantine treatment under commercial conditions.
