Miller Magazine Issue 109 / January 2019

79 “Remote monitoring is changing the fumigation world. Precision fumigation is not cheap to achieve and in most cases monitoring is made only at the beginning and at the end of a fumigation. Fumigators hesitate to send operators to take readings every day in a faraway silo. Wireless sensors offer new capabilities with continuous information upload. They allow the observation of each treatment in real time, allowing corrective actions and evaluation of each application. The cognitive software offers treatment prediction and gives recommendation to users based on numerous monitored parameters. In the next years all fumigations will be monitored online.” Large volumes of bulk grain have always been a challenge. A challenge to inspect, to maintain the quality, to locate the hot spots, to aerate, to fumigate, to preserve. Silos, ship holds, bunkers and flat warehouses shall offer safe storage but very often offer “blind” storage as it is really difficult to measure the conditions in the bulk mass. To successfully fumigate the large volu- mes, one needs to combine science with art! Fumigation Plan Everything good always starts with a plan. In the US and a few other countries, developing a fumigation plan and sharing it with the local authorities, is part of the legislation. In some ot- her countries, the fumigation plan is developed as part of the Good Practices. In most countries the plan only exists in the mind of the chief fu- migator. And this is not good… Looking at the American standard plan {2}, it includes the exact location to be treated, the responsible people and the authorities involved. It requires details of the structure to be fumiga- ted, like the type of walls, the adjacent buildings and even a drawing. The monitoring for safety depends on the risk assessment and continuous electronic monitoring is asked for the dangerous cases. The type of commodity must be stated, the volume and the quantity. The art of silo fumigation Vasilis Sotiroudas Pest Management Expert vasilis@centaur.ag