Container Fumigation

What gets treated

We fumigate both loaded and empty containers. Loaded work covers bagged and boxed goods, palletised cargo, machinery packed in timber, and mixed consignments where only part of the load carries a risk. Empty container work is usually done before stuffing, where a previous load has left residue or where the buyer asks for the box to be treated before your goods go anywhere near it.

The target is normally a stored product insect: beetles and weevils that live inside grain, pulses, spices, dried fish and milled products, and the borers that travel in packing timber. These insects breed inside the commodity, so surface spraying reaches almost none of them.

How the treatment works

A gas fills the whole volume of the container, moves through the gaps in the load, and reaches insects wherever they are sitting. That is the reason fumigation is used for cargo at all. A liquid application wets the outside of a stack and stops there, while a gas follows the air.

The container is sealed first. Door gaps, vents and any damage in the panels are closed, because a box that leaks holds no useful concentration and the treatment simply fails. Sealing is the part of the job that decides whether the rest of it works.

The load then sits undisturbed for a set exposure period, after which the container is opened and ventilated until the air inside is safe to work in.

Safety and access

Nobody enters a container under treatment. It is placarded, kept locked and kept under control for the whole exposure period, and it is not opened early because a lorry is waiting. If the container is on your premises, we agree an isolation area with you before the treatment begins and your staff stay clear of it.

The container is only released back to you once it has been ventilated and the air inside has been checked.

How long it takes

Plan for more than a single working day. Sealing and dosing take a few hours, exposure runs considerably longer, and ventilation adds time on the end. The exact schedule depends on the commodity, how tightly the container is packed and the ambient temperature, so we confirm it against your shipping dates before we start rather than quoting you a figure that suits nobody.

What you receive

You get a written record of the work: the container number, what was treated, the date and time the treatment started, the length of the exposure period, and confirmation that the container was ventilated before release.

If your buyer or your freight forwarder requires a particular document, tell us what it must say before the job is booked. We would rather establish that at the quotation stage than after your container is sealed.

What you need to prepare

Tell us the commodity, the packaging, the container number and where it will stand during treatment. Confirm the container can be left sealed and undisturbed for the full period, and that no one needs anything out of it in the meantime. Let us know your cut-off for the port, because that is what the schedule is built backwards from.