Microwave Treatment for Pest Control: Coleoptera Insects in Wooden Objects

Abstract

By far the most common species of woodworms perceived to be the main cause of damage to wood, and in particular to wooden art objects, are Anobium punctatum de Geer and Hylotrupes bajulas of Coleoptera family. In search of non-chemical methods for eradicating these wood pests, microwave (MW) heating can be an effective tool to help control the insects in their different life stages (eggs, larvae, and adult). The effect of 2.45 GHz frequency MW exposure on wooden art objects is described and discussed. MW heating time is reported in connection with lethal temperature of the pest and moisture content of the treated wooden object. The treatment was carried out using Microwood 12, especially conceived for portability, easy operation, and control. Microwood 12 consists of a switch mode high-voltage power supply and an industrial continuous wave magnetron connected to a rectangular-shaped horn antenna. The measure of temperature and control of operation is done via a built-in infrared thermometer.

Cite this work

No public copy is stored for this record, so only the metadata is cited.

Stored only when both papers are in the corpus — 5 citations exist upstream.

Papers that cite the same references — the relational fallback while embeddings are still backfilling.