A waveguide irradiation chamber for destruction of red palm weevils (Rhynchophorus ferrugineus) inside a block sample of a palm tree trunk.

A simple waveguide irradiation chamber at 2.45 GHz. was locally constructed for controlled laboratory experiments to assess the potentiality of using microwave heating for irradiation of weevils (RPW) inside healthy and infected palm tree trunks. The chamber consists of an aluminum rectangular waveguide with one of its broad sides removed for easy insertion of the block samples of the palm tree trunk. A rectangular aluminum plate, with the same dimensions as the removed wall section was made to slide-in and cover the tree block sample after its insertion in the waveguide to insure continuity of metallic walls. Temperature rise in the samples were monitored by thermocouples inserted through holes drilled at different positions along one of the waveguide side walls. Results showed that 100% mortality rate could be obtained with the RPW samples at distances not more than 2-3 cm from the leading edge of healthy tree block samples and 4-5 cm from leading edge of infected samples. Hot spots were observed at the leading edge of the tree samples due to high absorption of microwave at these regions.