Toxicity of Calcium Phosphate to some Pests of Stored Grain

Abstract

IN spite of some basic differences in the physiological and biochemical aspects of insects and mammals^1,2, no work seems to have been carried out on the nutritional effect of different inorganic salts on the growth and development of insects of stored foods, with the view of finding out salts specifically toxic to insects and non-toxic to mammals. In the exploratory experiments on the screening of some salts, particularly those which find application in the composition of processed foods, such as chlorides, carbonates, sulphates, nitrates and phosphates of sodium, potassium, calcium, magnesium, aluminium and ammonium, these were mixed at different levels, 0–3 per cent, in whole wheat flour and tested for their effect on growth and breeding of Tribolium castaneum(Herbst).