Seed fumigation

[Heather Schneider]

Hi everyone,

I’m wondering whether folks are treating their seed collections with any type of fumigation for pest control. When we collect for the BLM Seeds of Success, we are required to treat the seeds with No Pest Strips (https://www.hotshot.com/products/general-insect-control/no-pest-strip.aspx). Do folks also use those for treating their rare plant seed collections? And if you use them for anything, how do you manage exposure and off-gassing before handling seeds? We’re refining some of our safety protocols and I’m interested in learning about what other groups are doing.

Thanks,

Heather

[Kate Wellspring]

Greetings, Heather,

We don’t use fumigation for either our rare taxa seeds or our common ones either. I’ve not heard of it being used by other organizations. We tend to store our seeds in a cool drying room (20 %RH) for a few weeks before we process the seeds and in my experience this tends to kill most pests that might have been inadvertently collected along with the seeds.  I hope this is helpful.

Best wishes, Kate

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