Chemical‐Free Pest Control by Means of Dielectric Heating with Radio Waves: Selective Heating

Abstract

Dielectric heating with radio waves (RW) and microwaves is an alternative treatment to hazardous chemicals or hot air for pest control. RW can be used to heat large bulky materials homogeneously and smoothly to eliminate embedded pest organisms. Dielectric heating enables selective overheating of certain materials in a heterogeneous mixture. This feature of electromagnetic heating methods, in contrast to techniques based on thermal conduction, is caused by significant differences in the dielectric properties of pest organisms and matrix materials. This study proves unambiguously that selective heating of cylindrical pest organisms in wood matrices occurs under defined conditions. The selective heating effect strongly depends on the orientation of the pest organisms in the electric field.

Effects of Different Infra-Red Irradiations on the Survival of Granary Weevil Sitophilus granarius: Bioefficacy and Sustainability

“…Adult-perishing and progeny-suppressive effects of S. granarius caused by infrared irradiation were confirmed by our experiment. The efficacy of infrared treatment in plant protection has been bolstered by other studies in connection with a wide range of arthropod pests, including those posing a threat in public health [21,22] and forestry [23], as well as by stored product pests [1,4,8]. From the genus Sitophilus primarily, the maize weevil, S. zeamais [19,24] and the rice weevil, S. oryzae have been examined in previous investigations [19].…”

Regeneration of Desiccants for Hydrogen by Dielectric Heating with Radio Waves

“…Wa ¨hrend im MW-Bereich die Orientierungspolarisation des Wassers in den meisten Fa ¨llen der dominierende Prozess ist, lassen sich auch unterschiedliche trockene Materialien mit RW effizient aufheizen. Verbunden mit der ho ¨heren Eindringtiefe und der Mo ¨glichkeit, große Volumina zu erwa ¨rmen, fu ¨hrt diese Flexibilita ¨t zu zahlreichen Anwendungsoptionen der RW-Erwa ¨rmung wie beispielsweise der thermisch unterstu ¨tzten Bodensanierung [33,34], der Trocknung von Mauerwerk [35,36], dem chemikalienfreien thermischen Holzschutz [37][38][39] oder der Erwa ¨rmung von Baustoffen wie Asphalt und Beton [40,41].…”