An entomologist with Manitoba Agriculture, Food, and Rural Development says the recent cold snap is perfect for killing off unwanted insects inside the bin.
John Gavloski says bugs such as the rusty grain beetle are normally able to survive the winter because of the good insulation inside the bin.
He notes there are a couple of different ways to cool down the bin.
"The way you would get it cold enough, is to either get the aeration going when we have these very cold temperatures or just to move the grain during really cold temperatures just to get the core temperature down to between minus 10 and minus 20. At minus 10 it takes about eight weeks to kill rusty grain beetle. If you can get it down to minus 20 degrees it will kill things like rusty grain beetle within a week."
Gavloski adds that using cold temperatures is definitely the cheapest and easiest way to kill bugs inside the bin.