REGINA (Staff) – Grain industry experts are cautioning farmers not to try gassing rusty grain beetles until the weather warms up.
“You get a whiff of it, fall in and that’s it,” said Colin Demianyk of Agriculture Canada about the dangers of using grain beetle toxins. Phostoxin and other beetle killers are completely ineffective in temperatures below -5¡ C, he said.
The toxin comes in pellets and needs warmth and moisture to make it active. It becomes a gas that kills the grain beetles.
Nothing happens in the bin when farmers throw the pellets in cold grain. But when the grain reaches an elevator or a coast terminal and is allowed to warm, the chemicals react, creating health hazards for unsuspecting workers.
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Paul Graham, of the Canadian Grain Commission, said a section of a coast terminal had to be closed for a few hours in December because toxin pellets mixed in with a grain shipment began reacting in port. He said three years ago, a number of grain handlers ended up in the hospital after another toxin-laden shipment reacted and the workers breathed in the fumes.
Using the chemicals incorrectly also poses a threat to farmers, Demianyk said. An unsuspecting farmer could be overcome by the fumes he doesn’t expect, caused by pellets that he put in the bin when the temperature was colder, but reacted as the weather grew warmer.
Producers using toxins during warm weather must be careful too.
“The moment that stuff is taken out of the container and put in the bin it begins breaking down,” he said. “Don’t stick your head in there and see how things are going.”
