Miller Magazine Issue: 131 November 2020

54 MILLER / November 2020 Large volumes of stored products are fu- migated yearly to protect them against pests. Phosphine, sulfuryl fluoride, CO2, low oxygen and other methods are used globally in the fight against stored product insects. The diffi- culties of accessing silos, warehouses and ship holds, the danger of toxic fumigant gases on human health and the remote location of most storage assets, make fumigation monitoring difficult to achieve. During the COVID-19 pandemic, these challenges have become greater due to restrictions in personnel mobil- ity and access to terminals and storage sites. The lack of proper monitoring is not just compromising precision for fumigations and pest control. It actually makes fumigations fail! The problem is that we do not know they are failing, exactly because we are not monitor- ing properly in order to realize it. This article presents these frequent failure points we have discovered through our work of many years, and goes on to suggest digital and data-driven methods for managing fumigation work to- wards success. As the global economy is embracing the The lack of proper monitoring is not just compromising precision for fumigations and pest control. It actually makes fumigations fail! The problem is that we do not know they are failing, exactly because we are not monitoring properly in order to realize it. This article presents these frequent failure points we have discovered through our work of many years, and goes on to suggest digital and data-driven methods for managing fumigation work towards success. Digitally Managed Fumigations in the Industry 4.0 Era Vasilis Sotiroudas Pest Management Expert vasilis@centaur.ag