INSECT PLAGUES AND FOOD.
The red flour
beetle also known
as triboliun casteneum, is considered a plague of products stored
in a larder, such as flour, chocolate, pet food, tobacco etc. The red beetles
cycle goes from egg to larva and to adult and can last for 7 weeks; they
can live for about a year.
These beetles are slithering insects being attracted by light. There are
others of the same species with the same characteristics as for diet and cycles,
such as
the serrated beetle, but this is not attracted by light. The tobacco beetle
and
drugstore beetle are occasional pests, although they prefer dried herbs and
spicies.
The bait traps are placed in places where people store food, such as
warehouses, kitchens, larders etc.
The
flour moth is a very common household pest.
Their diet is usually made of dried fruit, flour, chocolate, maize flour, powdered
milk, pets food. One can recognize them in his adult status by their grey
wings, measuring 1.3 cm. During their larval cycle this moth is a pink caterpillar
moving along the contaminated food slithering for hiding itself until
adulthood.
The caterpillars feed on the surfaces of the contaminated product and
produce a silk thread, similar to a spider's web, all over the food. Their life cycle is
about a month.
The wheat, rice and maize
food are the most attacked by these pests.
The rice weevil, cereal or wheat
weevil and the maize weevil are the most harmful ones
in the world as flour is concerned. They reproduce more easily during warm weather, being all very
good slithering insects and some of them very good flying insects, therefore
they can infect the grain both in the storage and in the field. Some of them,
like the cereal weevil can hibernate. Females can lay about 300 eggs
during their lifetime that lasts for 8 or 9
months. The egg to larva cycle is completed in 30 days. One can notice
if a grain is attacked by the irregular hole that is perceived over the
skin.
If we use hermetic containers in larders, we
will manage to avoid the food plagues.
These pests are very resistant to many kinds of insecticides,
so it is
important to fully understand their morphologies and features, which is helpful for
pests extermination. As the presence of the adults is a sign of an infestation,
just killing them is not the solution; the important thing is destroying
the contaminated products, resorting to an extreme cleaning and the use
of sealed containers in order to prevent potential further problems with these
insects. The origin is often in some used boxes or bags, which by mistake were saved in the closets. The infestation is
produced while adults look for food.
There are different types of beetles, weevils and moths
that it is important to recognize.
If you want to read our other articles about the moths, cockroaches and snails
traps as well as some curiosities on these insects,
click below.
