Determination of internal insect infestation of oats: collaborative study

An improved method has been developed for determining internal insect infestation of oat kennels. The method involves alcohol defatting and acid hydrolysis of the cracked oats, wet sieving to remove the acid, transfer to a 2 L Wildman trap flask, deaeration by boiling, and treatment with Tween 80-Na4EDTA. Insects are extracted with light mineral oil. Reports from 6 collaborators showed that recoveries averaged 88.98% for adult insect heads and 97.22% for larvae. The method has been adopted official first action.