1. Mediterranean Flour Moth

General Description

· The adult is about 1 cm long.  The distance between the two ends of the flat front wings is 2.5 cm. The color of the forewings is light gray, each with two brown stripes. The hindwings are white with gray flanks and long fringes on the forewings and hindwings. · The larva is pale yellow or pink in color. On the body, there are small black tubercles, from which long hair appears, and the color of the head is dark brown. When fully grown, it is about 1.5 cm. ·  The egg is oval in shape, and white in color, and on its shell from the outside are simple protrusions resembling adjacent circles.

Credit: Andy Reago & Chrissy McClarren

Life Cycle and Common Characteristics

• The female lays eggs individually in accumulations of flour or other milled products.

• The female lays about 200-300 eggs. The eggs hatch after about a week into larvae that begin weaving threads, starting at the third larval stage.
• The duration of the larval stage is from 4-6 weeks. Before turning into a pupal stage, the color of the larva becomes dark green.
• The pupal stage is from 8-14 days.
• The duration of the generation is 7-18 weeks, and it has 3 generations per year.

Damage and Economic Implications

• The larvae feed on dried fruits and pollen in beehives. They are found in grain and its products. They can adapt and reproduce at 1% relative humidity.
• The larvae make tunnels in the foodstuffs that infect them and secrete thick silky threads on them that stick the particles of the food together and turn them into adjacent masses that are difficult to remove or clean.

5. Drugstore Beetle

General Description

Life Cycle and Common Characteristics

• The female lays eggs individually in cracks in the surrounding products.
• The time required for the transition from the egg to the full insect varies greatly depending on the prevailing temperature. In warm weather conditions, the development of the stages takes place within one month, while in cold weather it takes a whole year.

Damage and Economic Implications

• It feeds on many food products (food products such as bread, flour, spices, leather products, books, and carton packages). It may pierce sheets made of tin and lead, and is characterized by digging in a straight line in those materials.

• The larva is the only feeding stage and can survive several weeks without feeding.
  • The insect has the ability to infest toxic substances such as poisoned pills and medicines.
• Some specialists call this pest “the pest that eats everything but iron.”

4. Khapra Beetles or Trogoderma

General Description

Life Cycle and Common Characteristics

• The female lays 35-126 eggs between the cracks of the grain without giving them a glue substance, as in other insects, and lays them individually, or puts them in the cracks of the walls of the stores.
  • Incubation of eggs from 5-12 days in the summer.
  • The growth of the larva is completed within 20 days at 40°C and 40 days at 25°C.
• The larva overwinters in the cracks in the walls.
• The larva molts 4-14 times (depending on the amount of food).
• The larva has the ability to live for a year without food.
  • The larvae enter dormancy in the cracks of the walls of the storage area, and this depends on the exposure of larvae to low temperatures and their exposure to high or low humidity.
  • All stages are resistant to heat and drought and can withstand a temperature of 45°C.
• The larva can live in a relative humidity of less than 2%.
• The larva lives in empty warehouses for 4 years without food.
• There are 10 generations per year, one generation per year, or one generation over a year (depending on the environmental conditions).

Damage and Economic Implications

• They live on grain products such as flour, groats, pasta, and biscuits. They multiply on castor seeds and cotton. A type of them has been found that lives on all animal products, especially wool.
• The larva and the adult insect feed on wheat and corn grains, destroying and polluting the grains.

4. 3. Cadelle

   General Description

   ·  The adult is black, about 8-12 mm long. The body is oblong and tends to be an oval in shape. It has strong jaws, and its head and thorax are connected to the abdomen by a small ring. ·  The larva is relatively large in size and may reach a length of 18 mm. The color of the larva is yellowish-white, and the abdomen ends with two strong thorns, dark brown or black in color.

   Credit: Rosa Henderson

    

   Life Cycle and Common Characteristics

   • The insect spends its winter hibernation in the larval stage or an adult.
   • The female lays eggs in groups on or near food items (from 10-60 eggs per group).
   • One female can lay about 1000 eggs.
     • The eggs hatch after 7-10 days on average into larvae that complete their development in a period ranging from 2-14 months,
     • The larva may live for 3.5 years before turning into a pupa.
     • It is considered one of the longest-lived food insects, as the average life reaches about a full year and may extend to two years. They can survive for a long time without food.
   • An insect has one generation per year.

    

   Damage and Economic Implications

   • This insect infests flour, crushed grains, and cereal products.
   • It is sometimes considered one of the most dangerous insects of stored grains, and if it is abundant, its damage becomes severe, especially in mills.
   • It has the ability to puncture food packaging bags and cartons.

   The larva has a habit of burrowing into the wood and is difficult to remove when performing normal cleaning operations. It prefers to feed in the embryo area on whole grains and can feed on other insects.

4. 2. Indianmeal Moth   

   General Description

   • The adult is 7-10 mm long, the basal third of the forewings are gray and the remaining section is reddish-copper. Hind wings are gray with dense pubescence.
   • The larva is 10-17 mm long, white (yellowish-greenish-reddish), pinkish-white, and has brown spots on its body.
   • The pupa is brown and 11 mm long.

    

   Credit: Mvuijlst

   Credit: Pudding4brains

    

   Life Cycle and Common Characteristics

   • The larva overwinters inside the stored products.
   • Females lay eggs (350 eggs in total) in groups on stored products or beside food.
   • The eggs hatch after a few days, and the egg incubation for 3-12 days.
   • The larva needs 4-6 weeks to complete its development in the summer and 20 weeks during the winter.
   • The fully developed larva weaves a silken cocoon, which turns into pupae inside.
   • The pupa phase is 26 days (16°C) or 4 days (31°C).
   • The generation period is 3-7 weeks in warm regions.
     • The larvae of the last generation, at the end of autumn, hibernate.
     • There are 6-7 generations per year.

    

   Damage and Economic Implications

   • The larva feeds on the stored materials (flour, yellow corn, dried fruits, biscuits, chocolate, dried milk dates) and secretes silky threads surrounded by the materials it fed on.
   • The larva pollutes the feeding site with feces and renders the materials unsuitable for consumption.

   Life Cycle and Common Characteristics

   • The larva overwinters inside the stored products.
   • Females lay eggs (350 eggs in total) in groups on stored products or beside food.
   • The eggs hatch after a few days, and the egg incubation for 3-12 days.
   • The larva needs 4-6 weeks to complete its development in the summer and 20 weeks during the winter.
   • The fully developed larva weaves a silken cocoon, which turns into pupae inside.
   • The pupa phase is 26 days (16°C) or 4 days (31°C).
   • The generation period is 3-7 weeks in warm regions.
     • The larvae of the last generation, at the end of autumn, hibernate.
     • There are 6-7 generations per year.

    

   Damage and Economic Implications

   • The larva feeds on the stored materials (flour, yellow corn, dried fruits, biscuits, chocolate, dried milk dates) and secretes silky threads surrounded by the materials it fed on.
   • The larva pollutes the feeding site with feces and renders the materials unsuitable for consumption.