DARKLING BEETLE INFORMATION

AgSealants Resist The Damage From Darkling Beetles

Click Here To View University of Geogia's November, 2005 Newsletter About Darkling Beetles

Can the darkling beetle effect any of the AgBarrier? This is the one question which we get asked the most about. The short answer is " Yes" , but not if you do not implement a farm program around minimizing the effects of the darkling beetle. Of course the darkling beetles can deteriorate almost any building material that is in agricultural facility, if they are not kept under control.

This is why we offer a complete AgBarrier program because with the right design of high density polyurethane sealants we can minimize the effects of not only darkling beetles, but other issues which can cause the deterioration of the building material including effects of from moisture, temperature variations and even air quality. The secret is in the hard flex seal shell and how we spray it during installation. Also, because we offer white sealant and a black sealant, we can also minimize the effects of the damage that a darkling beetle incur and yet, it gives a very durable agseal.

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One of the primary reasons why Sealant Technologies developed AgBarrier and why we offer many different high density polyurethane sealants is because we can design a system for each agricultural facility that will not only be cost effective, but will allow us to use material that will hold up well in certain environments. For instance, in poultry houses we tend to use AgSealants down near the floor of the house where the litter is located and to create a flex seal. This is because this sealant will hold up against not only the beetles, but the birds pecking at the material. We also want to make sure that we just seal the joints in these critical areas so that there is less likelihood of the beetles harboring and deteriorating the sealant more.

As you can see in the photo below, a typical foam will not create a lot of areas that that darkling beetles can harbor in which are just areas that allow access into the foam. Once the darkling beetle gets past the shell, then there is very little that a farmer can do to stop the beetles from digging away more and more material until it is finally gone. The key to the Ag-tite ag sealants is that because of their hard shell and due to the fact that we are able to spray our product so that it has a very slick and smooth surface, the opportunity for the darkling beetle to find a crease or joint to begin the process of digging is minimized. This is what allows our high density polyurethane sealants to be durable.