The Indian meal moth, Plodia interpunctella (Hübner) (Lepidoptera: Pyralidae), is a very common stored-product pest. The mature larvae wander around searching for suitable places to pupate, offering an opportunity to control this pest. We evaluated the efficacy of 5 insecticide dusts: Alpine (0.25% dinotefuran, 95% diatomaceous earth [DE]), CimeXa (92.1% amorphous silica gel), DX13 (100% DE), Tempo (1% cyfluthrin), and Tri-Die (1% pyrethrin, 10% piperonyl butoxide, 40% amorphous silica) against P. interpunctella wandering larvae by allowing larvae to pass 1-inch treated band, expose to treated vinyl tiles for 5 min, and expose to treated harborage (with or without the presence of an untreated harborage). A commercially treated harborage product (Nattaro band) served as a positive control in the exposure to the treated harborage test. Tempo was significantly more effective than other insecticide dusts in the 1-inch band and forced exposure tests but caused only 44% and 54% larvae mortality in the 2 tests. In contrast, CimeXa, Tri-Die, and Tempo caused 84%-89% mortality when the larvae were provided with treated harborages. When both treated and untreated harborages were present, Tempo caused a significantly higher mortality and a lower percentage of emerged adults from larvae than Tri-Die, but not significantly more than CimeXa. Deploying Tempo or CimeXa-treated harborages and/or applying insecticide dust directly into the wall crevices, perimeters of the floor, shipping pallets, and other areas where P. interpunctella larvae hide could be an effective method for the management of the wandering stage of P. interpunctella larvae in storage facilities.

Behavioral bioassays were conducted to determine whether bed bug adults and nymphs prefer specific colored harborages. Two-choice and seven-choice behavioral color assays indicate that red (28.5%) and black (23.4%) harborages are optimal harborage choices for bed bugs. Yellow and green harborages appear to repel bed bugs. Harborage color preferences change according to gender, nutritional status, aggregation, and life stage. Female bed bugs prefer harborages with shorter wavelengths (lilac-14.5% and violet-11.5%) compared to males, whereas males prefer harborages with longer wavelengths (red-37.5% and black-32%) compared with females. The preference for orange and violet harborages is stronger when bed bugs are fed as opposed to when they are starved. Lone bed bugs (30%) prefer to be in black harborages while red harborages appear to be the optimum harborage color for bed bugs in more natural mixed aggregations (35.5%). Bed bug nymphs preferred different colored harborages at each stage of development, which is indicative of their developing eye structures and pigments. First instars showed no significant preference for any colored harborage soon after hatching. However, by the fifth instar, 27.5% of nymphs significantly preferred red and black harborages (which was a similar preference to adult bed bugs). The proportion of oviposited eggs was significantly greater under blue, red, and black harborages compared to other colored harborages tested. The use of visual cues such as specific colors offers great potential for improving bed bug monitoring tools by increasing trap captures.