Abstract
The performance of six grain storage technologies for the control of insect pests in maize was evaluated over a 36-week (9-month) storage period. The six technologies used were: two ZeroFly® hermetic bag brands (laminated and non-laminated); Purdue Improved Crop Storage (PICS) bag; non-hermetic ZeroFly® bag; woven polypropylene (PP) bag containing maize grain treated with Actellic Gold® Dust (pirimiphos-methyl 1.6% + thiamethoxam 0.3%) and woven PP bag containing untreated grain. Each bag was filled with 50 kg maize grain and four replicates of each were set up. With the exception of the non-hermetic ZeroFly® bag, 50 live adults of the larger grain borer Prostephanus truncatus and of the maize weevil Sitophilus zeamais, were introduced into all the bags. Insects were not introduced into the non-hermetic ZeroFly® bag to assess its effectiveness in repelling infestation from outside. Parameters recorded were gas composition (oxygen and carbon dioxide) levels inside the bags; weight of flour generated by insect feeding activities; grain moisture level; live adult insect counts; grain damage and weight loss; grain germination rate and aflatoxin level. At termination, the plastic liners of the hermetic bags were examined for perforations. Results show that oxygen depletion and carbon dioxide evolution were faster in ZeroFly® hermetic compared to PICS bags. Throughout the 36-week storage trial, grain damage remained below 4% and weight loss below 3% in all the treatments except in the untreated PP bags in which it increased to 81.1 and 25.5%, respectively. The hermetic PICS, ZeroFly® and Actellic Gold dust-treated PP bags maintained grain germination at 60%, which was lower than the initial 90%, while in untreated control, it reduced to 4.7%. The mean aflatoxin levels fluctuated between 0.39 and 3.56 parts per billion (ppb) during 24 weeks of storage in all the technologies tested, which is below the acceptable maximum level of 10 ppb in maize. Based on the evaluation results, it can be concluded that hermetic PICS and ZeroFly® bags and woven PP bag with Actellic Gold dust-treated grain effectively protected stored maize grain from insect attack and weight losses. Appropriate strategies and mechanisms for the effective and efficient adoption of hermetic storage bag technology at scale would contribute towards global food security.
Abstract from the paper’s OpenAlex record, shown for indexing and research. Copyright remains with the authors or the publisher. Read at the source ↗
The text the model read, with the source record’s inline markup (italics, sub- and superscripts) rendered and its character entities decoded; quote offsets refer to the raw text.
Claims 8
Claim · model-written summary
Oxygen depletion and carbon dioxide evolution were faster in ZeroFly hermetic bags than in PICS bags.
- Treatment
- ZeroFly® hermetice1
- Outcome
- oxygen depletion and carbon dioxide evolutione1
- Direction
- fastere1
- Comparator
- PICS bagse1
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
e0“The performance of six grain storage technologies for the control of insect pests in maize was evaluated over a 36-week (9-month) storage period”
e1“oxygen depletion and carbon dioxide evolution were faster in ZeroFly® hermetic compared to PICS bags”
Claim · model-written summary
Grain damage increased to 81.1% in untreated PP bags, compared with all other treatments.
- Treatment
- untreated PP bagse2
- Interactor
- Prostephanus truncatus
Prostephanus truncatuse1pest - Second interactor
- Sitophilus zeamais
Sitophilus zeamaise1pest - Outcome
- grain damagee2
- Direction
- increasede2
- Value
- 81.1e2
- Comparator
- all the treatmentse2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.



Verbatim
e0“The performance of six grain storage technologies for the control of insect pests in maize was evaluated over a 36-week (9-month) storage period”
e1“50 live adults of the larger grain borer Prostephanus truncatus and of the maize weevil Sitophilus zeamais, were introduced into all the bags”
e2“grain damage remained below 4% and weight loss below 3% in all the treatments except in the untreated PP bags in which it increased to 81.1 and 25.5%, respectively”
Claim · model-written summary
Weight loss increased to 25.5% in untreated PP bags, compared with all other treatments.
- Treatment
- untreated PP bagse2
- Interactor
- Prostephanus truncatus
Prostephanus truncatuse1pest - Second interactor
- Sitophilus zeamais
Sitophilus zeamaise1pest - Outcome
- weight losse2
- Direction
- increasede2
- Value
- 25.5%e2
- Comparator
- all the treatmentse2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.



Verbatim
e0“The performance of six grain storage technologies for the control of insect pests in maize was evaluated over a 36-week (9-month) storage period”
e1“50 live adults of the larger grain borer Prostephanus truncatus and of the maize weevil Sitophilus zeamais, were introduced into all the bags”
e2“grain damage remained below 4% and weight loss below 3% in all the treatments except in the untreated PP bags in which it increased to 81.1 and 25.5%, respectively”
Claim · model-written summary
Grain damage remained below 4% in the other treatments, with weight loss below 3%.
- Outcome
- grain damagee2
- Value
- below 4%e2
- Qualifier
- weight loss below 3% in all the treatments except in the untreated PP bagse2
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
e0“The performance of six grain storage technologies for the control of insect pests in maize was evaluated over a 36-week (9-month) storage period”
e2“grain damage remained below 4% and weight loss below 3% in all the treatments except in the untreated PP bags in which it increased to 81.1 and 25.5%, respectively”
Claim · model-written summary
Hermetic PICS, ZeroFly and Actellic-treated PP bags kept grain germination at 60%, below the initial 90%.
- Treatment
- hermetic PICS, ZeroFly® and Actellic Gold dust-treated PP bagse3
- Outcome
- grain germinatione3
- Direction
- maintainede3
- Value
- 60%e3
- Comparator
- initial 90%e3
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
e0“The performance of six grain storage technologies for the control of insect pests in maize was evaluated over a 36-week (9-month) storage period”
e3“The hermetic PICS, ZeroFly® and Actellic Gold dust-treated PP bags maintained grain germination at 60%, which was lower than the initial 90%, while in untreated control, it reduced to 4.7%”
Claim · model-written summary
Grain germination fell to 4.7% in the untreated control.
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
e0“The performance of six grain storage technologies for the control of insect pests in maize was evaluated over a 36-week (9-month) storage period”
e3“The hermetic PICS, ZeroFly® and Actellic Gold dust-treated PP bags maintained grain germination at 60%, which was lower than the initial 90%, while in untreated control, it reduced to 4.7%”
Claim · model-written summary
Mean aflatoxin levels in stored maize stayed between 0.39 and 3.56 ppb, below the 10 ppb maximum.
- Outcome
- mean aflatoxin levelse4
- Value
- 0.39 and 3.56 parts per billion (ppb)e4
- Qualifier
- below the acceptable maximum level of 10 ppb in maizee4
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
e0“The performance of six grain storage technologies for the control of insect pests in maize was evaluated over a 36-week (9-month) storage period”
e4“The mean aflatoxin levels fluctuated between 0.39 and 3.56 parts per billion (ppb) during 24 weeks of storage in all the technologies tested, which is below the acceptable maximum level of 10 ppb in maize”
Claim · model-written summary
The authors conclude that hermetic PICS and ZeroFly bags and Actellic-treated PP bags effectively protected stored maize from insect attack and weight loss.
- Treatment
- hermetic PICS and ZeroFly® bags and woven PP bag with Actellic Gold dust-treated graine1
- Outcome
- insect attack and weight lossese1
- Direction
- effectively protectede1
Not reportedComparator
Organisms pictured · Representative pictures of the matched species, not figures from the paper.

Verbatim
e0“The performance of six grain storage technologies for the control of insect pests in maize was evaluated over a 36-week (9-month) storage period”
e1“hermetic PICS and ZeroFly® bags and woven PP bag with Actellic Gold dust-treated grain effectively protected stored maize grain from insect attack and weight losses”
The same questions in other papers
poly(propylene) · growth · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
1 paper in the same direction as this paper · 1 in the opposite direction
- negative
- positive
poly(propylene) · Prostephanus truncatus · Zea mays (maize)Results agree
1 paper in the same direction as this paper
- negative
storage · growth · Zea mays (maize)Positive and negative results
40 papers in the same direction as this paper · 20 in the opposite direction · 1 reporting no difference from an alternative
- no effect
- negative
- no effect
58 papers more in this group
See all 62 papers →Claims are grouped by organism, treatment and what was measured or targeted. A paper counts as positive when any of its claims in the group is positive.