USDA researchers are closing in on a steam heat alternative to eliminate internal pests in fresh fruits and other commodities — including, one day, corn and soybeans. Steam heat treatment is less expensive and much more environmentally friendly than current chemical treatments.

“We are trying to develop a treatment method that can be used for fresh fruits and vegetables as an alternative to methyl bromide fumigation,” says Xikui Wei, research lead at the Treatment and Inspection Methods Lab in Miami, which is part of USDA Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service. “Fruit flies are a major group of the target pests.”

Besides fumigation to kill pests, other methods include hot water, vapor heat and cold treatments. Wei says each pest is eliminated at a different temperature. Some fruit flies, for example, are eliminated after exposure to steam heated at 116 degrees F for 10 minutes. The steam is injected into a fixed chamber or inflatable enclosure.

“It’s like a bounce house in your backyard. You just pump air into it and it pops up, in whatever size you want. It’s very inexpensive to build and easy to transport,” Wei explains. “We take our inflatable into the field, pump in air, then place the fruit inside the enclosure. Then, we inject steam and control the temperature.”

Another advantage of Wei’s steam treatment method is that it can be applied in the field, as well as in a processing center. This makes it useful during an outbreak.

“The host fruit can be treated in the quarantine zone and shipped out. Without treatment, you cannot ship fruit or vegetables out of the quarantine zone when an outbreak is happening,” he says.

Steam heat was previously studied as an environmentally friendly way to kill pests in logs, using a vacuum chamber by scientists at Virginia Tech and the APHIS Forest Pest Method Lab. Wei learned about the research in 2019.  

“I saw what they were doing, and I wanted to know if that system would work for fruit and vegetables,” he recalls. “At the beginning, it didn’t work. I knew nothing at the time. At the end of the treatment, everything was burned because there was too much vacuum, and the temperature was too high.”

The in-house prototype Wei is experimenting with can treat about 2,000 pounds of fruit at one time. He says it’s been designed to be scalable. Researchers are looking into its effectiveness for other types of fruit and vegetables, including potatoes. Produce must be hardy enough to withstand higher temperatures.

“Corn and soybeans are probably not as sensitive to temperatures,” Wei says. “With circulation of steam, it can go into the pile of corn and soybeans. I think it would be useful.”

New Holland brings to market
2 small telescopic loaders

New Holland has two new telescopic-reach models available in the small articulated loader marketplace — the ML35T and ML50T. They’re designed to give operators additional reach and hinge pin height when loading or moving materials.

“This will let you stack those bales a little bit higher. It gives you extended motion, which will come in handy,” says Dan Kakareka, product portfolio manager for New Holland Construction, highlighting a front-articulating design that puts the operator in the back to optimize mobility. “One of the key advantages is being able to get into those tighter areas, nooks and crannies, which larger machines can’t get into.”

The design eliminates tail swing. The ML35T and ML50T loaders have 65 and 74 hp, respectively. Steel plates and reinforced booms reduce wear and potential cracking of plastic components. Available features include creep mode, mechanical self-leveling, and a hand and foot throttle.

The new machines add to a growing number of products New Holland has released at the end of last year and the beginning of this year. Among them are new compact wheel leaders, the W50, the W60 and the W70 “are a little bit larger and heavier-duty than our other articulated loaders,” Kakareka says. Along with redesigned cabs and new interior features, they also have a longer reach, “for customers who have the standard W80s and need a little bit more.”