Weevil in over-yeared wheat

[tullah]

Laziness on my part, I left a ton of last years wheat in the bottom of a 20 ton kongskilde wooden drying bin. Started wheat other day and filled up the bin and put the fan on and loads of beetles or weevils have come out of the perforated side, little brown devils no more than 2mm length scurrying about on the outside wall.
The drying bin is 5 metres from the on floor storage area. Could I risk just emptying out the top recently combined and hopefully still clean 18 ton sending it to the back wall of the store or will this new crop now be contaminated too? This would leave me the remaining 2 ton in the bottom to put into big bags.
Once empty, what do I treat the dryer with and can the chemical go through my knapsack?

 

[yellow belly]

Empty the bin and clean all the grain vaccume the bin out is you only sensible option they will move to the warmest grain
fresh Harvested grain will be between 20 and 35degrees c (on a sunny day )
bugs thrive above 10 degrees c

rejection and cleaning 29 tonne would cost you £ 800 a load minimum

 

[tullah]

No cleaner here. Would you risk putting the hopefully still uncontaminated clean 18 ton wheat from the bin over to the on floor store. I could keep it separate and sell as a lorry load straight away.

 

[teslacoils]

How much time have you got?
Have you just got 20t in the bin, or is there 500t in a heap nearby?
Is the harvested grain dry?

If the weevils are now roaming about, personally I'd be minded to clean out the entire store.

 

[B'o'B]

Find out what you’ve got first
AHDB grain storage pest poster

 

[tullah]

Pretty rushed. Just 20t in the bin of which bottom 2 to 3 ton old crop weevil infested.
No other grain in store. Hoping to start wheat next week tipping up other end of the shed onto the floor.
The 18t of clean new crop in the drying bin is 17%. The 2t weevil area at bottom is 15%. It's only the bottom area of the bin that weevils are pouring out of. I'm leaving the fan on day and night and with a central duct going up the bin it might keep pushing them out instead of them migrating up the bin.
Whole store can be cleaned again and sprayed for good measure. Quicker spraying on floor store than bins.

 

[teslacoils]

I know its been mentioned elsewhere, but any chance of getting a mecmar or simar tub drier in for the day? I'd want the stuff gone asap, then store cleaned out before more crop comes in. And I mean sprayed, hoovered, blown out etc.

It may be that I sold it as "distressed grain" for collection Monday / Tuesday just to get shot and the shed cleaned out.

 

[tullah]

Find out what you’ve got first
AHDB grain storage pest poster

Thanks for the chart. Only noticed them by torch in the dark this evening. Miniscule brown about 1mm. If they were bigger they would be easier to identify.

 

[tullah]

I know its been mentioned elsewhere, but any chance of getting a mecmar or simar tub drier in for the day? I'd want the stuff gone asap, then store cleaned out before more crop comes in. And I mean sprayed, hoovered, blown out etc.

It may be that I sold it as "distressed grain" for collection Monday / Tuesday just to get shot and the shed cleaned out.

Sounds best option. Just the year can't risk a contaminated store. What sort of knock on the price would you expect?

 

[ollie989898]

Clean them out and spray the affected bin or part of the store before using it again.

A tonne of old bug infested wheat I would spread out in a field or something to get rid of it.

 

[tullah]

What would you suggest to put through the knapsack over the weekend?!

 

[Simon Chiles]

What would you suggest to put through the knapsack over the weekend?!

I’m not an agronomist but I’d think this was the solution to your problem

 

[Flat 10]

You won’t do that again. Cleanliness is the key but most of us have neglected to clean out a drill, spreader or bin and regretted it.

 

[nonemouse]

What would you suggest to put through the knapsack over the weekend?!

As Simon said K obiol will cure it, load out into trailers see if you can spray as you load it out, then clean store and spray that with same. They move quite fast through a heap of grain.
Mobile drier will take the bulk of them out but will still need an insecticide spray after.

 

[Flat 10]

Not that expensive to have it fumigated (allegedly luckily have no direct experience)

 

[tullah]

Thanks to all. I'll see what the top half comes out like. Bottom will be bagged up for pheasants etc., a thorough sweep down and vac followed by K obiol throughout. Just as well there's a break in the weather and lesson learned.

 

[David.]

I seriously doubt you will segregate it now.
Best answer is to put it through a pot drier, but I'm actually wondering how keen I would be to help someone out and contaminate my shed and drier.... might be the good deed that kicks you, and keeps on kicking.

 

[tullah]

From the chart looks like we have mites no more than 1mm long and not weevils.

Are feed millers more lenient regarding mites than weevils?

If they find a single mite in their sample at tipping, do they reject the load or just make a deduction?

Im not going to call the merchant and start asking questions or they'll have the heads up and crawl all over the load on arrival.

The picture shows the bottom of the bin which is going to be thrown out. Just the decent stuff above will go on a lorry if there's no visible contamination.

 

[B'o'B]

From the chart looks like we have mites no more than 1mm long and not weevils.

Are feed millers more lenient regarding mites than weevils?

If they find a single mite in their sample at tipping, do they reject the load or just make a deduction?

Im not going to call the merchant and start asking questions or they'll have the heads up and crawl all over the load on arrival.

The picture shows the bottom of the bin which is going to be thrown out. Just the decent stuff above will go on a lorry if there's no visible contamination.

They don't look like mites to me.

 

[David.]

Do you have any idea how much it costs a mill to shut down and decontaminate a silo?