12th International Working Conference on Stored Product Protection (IWCSPP) in Berlin, Germany, October 7-11, 2018 Julius-Kühn-Archiv 463 497 IAEA, International atomic energy agency report. Available at: http://www-naweb.iaea.org/nafa/ipc/inherited-sterility.html. Cited in 21/5/2018. IHSANULLAH, I AND A. RASHID. 2017. Current activities in food irradiation as a sanitary and phytosanitary treatment in the Asia and the Pacific Region and a comparison with advanced countries. Food Control 72, 345-359. JANG, E.B., MCINNIS, D. O., KURASHIMA, R., WOODS, B. AND D. M. SUCKLING. 2012. Irradiation of Adult Epiphyas postvittana (Lepidoptera: Tortricidae): Egg Sterility in Parental and F1 Generations. Journal of Economic Entomology 105(1), 54-61. SHETTY V. , SHETTY, N.J., HARINI, B.P., ANANTHANARAYANA, S.R., JHAC, S.K. AND R.C. CHAUBEY. 2016. Effect of gamma radiation on life history traits of Aedes aegypti (L.). Parasite Epidemiology and Control 1, 26-35. Radio Frequency Heat Treatment for Controlling Cigarette Beetle in Dried Tobacco Yaowaluk Chanbang 1,3 , Nadthawat Muenmanee 1,2 1 Department of Entomology and Plant Pathology, Faculty of Agriculture, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, 50200 Thailand 2 Postharvest Technology Research Center, Faculty of Agriculture, Chiang Mai University, Chiang Mai, 50200 Thailand 3 Postharvest Technology Innovation Center, Commission on Higher Education, Bangkok 10400, Thailand *Corresponding author: Y. Chanbang, lukksu@hotmail.com DOI 10.5073/jka.2018.463.107 Abstract Tobacco (Nicotiana tabacum L.) is one of many agricultural commodities produced in Thailand. There are Virginia (flue-cured tobacco) and Burley (air-cured tobacco) typesand Cigarette beetle, Lasioderma sericorne F. is the most important insect pest that attacks dried tobacco. The efficacy of radio frequency (RF) heat treatment at 27.12 MHz was examined to control cigarette beetle on dried tobacco. Various growth stages of cigarette beetle were prepared within samples of dried tobacco and were exposed to RF at 55, 60, and 65 °C for 1, 2 and 3 minutes. The results showed that pupal and adult stages of cigarette beetle were the most tolerant stages to RF heat treatments. The RF treatment at 65 °C for 3 minutes is able to cause complete mortality of egg, larval, pupal and adult stages of cigarette beetle4. Keywords: dried tobacco, Lasioderma serricorne, tolerant stage, heat treatment Introduction Virginia and Burley tobacco production in Thailand is found in 10 provinces mostly in the north and northeast of Thailand covering about 21,000 ha and is valued at approximately 2 billion US dollars in 2016-2017 cigarette sales. In Virginia and Burley tobacco storage, cigarette beetle, Lasioderma serricorne (F.) (Coleoptera: Anobiidae) is the most damaging insect pests of dried tobacco and grain products such as corn, beans and dried herbs in Thailand. Insecticides have been used as the main control measure for managing stored tobacco pests. To avoid chemical contamination in the commodity other control measures such as storage sanitation and pest exclusion to remove sources of infestation should be considered. Several studies have been performed using radio frequency (RF) energy to control stored product insects. Mitcham et al. (2004) tested RF energy to control Codling moth (Cydia pomonella), navel orangeworm (Amyelois transitella, and Indianmeal moth (Plodia interpunctella), at 55°C for 5 minutes and was able to gain complete control.. Lagunas-Solar et al. (2007) also reported that using RF at, 10 kHz to 1050 MHz resulted in >99% mortality of Anguomois grain moth (Sitotroga cerealella). The use of radio frequency, as a heat treatment, has been investigated to control many kinds of insect pest associated with agricultural products (Nelson, 1996). Experiments have been conducted to control many stored product insects to determine the tolerant stages of insects to the RF heat (Table 1.). For heat treatment with radio frequency, commodities are allowed to increase temperature rapidly due to the vibrationof water molecules. Nutapong (2012) tested the efficacy of RF to kill cigarette beetle on packaged dried tobacco which was infested with cigarette beetles in all stages. The results showed that the adult stage was the most tolerance to RF heat treatment at higher temperatures (104 °C) for complete control Radio frequency also has less effect on various kinds of grains compared with conventional heat (Srikam et al., 2014; Wangsapa et al. 2016; Zhou