Control of stored food pests in the ancient Orient and classical antiquity

Protective measures against certain insect and rodent pests which harmed stored, dried food were devised during oriental (˜ 3000–30 bc ) and classical antiquity (˜ 2000 bc–ad 476). Wishful thinking of early dwellers on the Nile condemned such pests and converted them into harmless creatures (˜ 3000 bc ), as evident from many hieroglyphs depicting mutilated animals (fig. 1). Preservation of cereals for future use was achieved by storing unthreshed grain ears (fig. 2), adding soil dust and ashes causing lethal dehydration of insect pests in the cereals. This ingenious procedure was probably invented and widely applied by Jacob's son Joseph in order to overcome severe food shortage during the Hyksos rule (˜ 1640–1530 bc ) or the reign of King Tuthmosis IV (˜ 1413–1405 bc ). During oriental antiquity, various resins and drugs (table 1) were pyrolysed and/or volatilized in special censers originating from dynastic Egypt (fig. 3). In addition to their primary task in spiritual and material purification, most fumigants were particularly active as repellents, insectistatics and/or insecticides against common storage pests. Moreover, the fumes emitted by gazelle dung (heated or spread in grain stores) strongly repelled granivorous mice and rats from stored cereals. In ancient Rome, V. Pollio, M. T. Varro (1st century bc ) and L. J. M. Columella (1st century ad ) recognized the overall importance of an optimal design and location of granaries for safe storage: they had to be constructed either well above the ground and exposed to air currents from east and north or be immersed under the ground as air‐tight pits. In his well‐known treatise “De agri cultura”, M. P. Cato (234–149 bc ) reported on the pest‐averting action of amurca (aqueous residue left after straining the oil from olives) as well as enhancing its grain‐protectant activity by addition of ground chalk and crushed foliage of Arthemisia absinthium, Coriandrum sativum or Inula conyza. The interior of empty granaries was thoroughly covered with the improved paste of amurca. The latter is likely to have acted by clogging the hiding and oviposition niches of storage pests, releasing compounds which are capable of repelling granivorous insects and mice as well as suppressing their reproductive potential. A revived interest in pest‐averting procedures practised in antiquity may be worthwhile in view of the destructive side‐effects of certain pesticides on the environment as well as the alarming increase and spread of pesticide resistance in storage insect species.