2. Dark Mealworm

General Description

·  Adult dark mealworms are the same size as yellow mealworms but are dull black. Larvae are dark brown, as compared to the shiny yellow to light brown yellow mealworm.

Credit: NobbiP

Life Cycle and Common Characteristics

• The dark mealworm has a similar life cycle and habits to the yellow mealworm.

Damage and Economic Implications

• The dark mealworm causes similar damage caused by the yellow mealworm.

V – Rodents (please link to rodent section)

4. Sawtoothed Grain Beetle

General Description

Life Cycle and Common Characteristics

• The adult spends the winter hibernation on the stored products or in the cracks of the walls of the stores.
• The female lays eggs (total 45-285 shiny eggs) in small masses in crevices in the food supply, although they are also laid freely in flour.

• The female does not lay eggs below 24°C (the optimum is 30°C).
• Egg incubation is 5-15 days.
• The larva feeds on stored products and molts 2-4 times.
• The larva is fully developed from 2-10 weeks.
  • The larva pupates and the pupal stage takes about 1-2 weeks.
• The generation period is 3-4 weeks.
• The insect has several generations a year.

Damage and Economic Implications

• The larva and the adult insect feed on stored and crushed grain and flour (flour, pasta, chocolate, tobacco, hazelnuts, pistachios).
• The larvae damage the products and pollute them with their waste.

3. Red Flour Beetle

General Description

Life Cycle and Common Characteristics

• The female lays 400-500 eggs on stored foodstuffs during her lifetime.
• The eggs hatch after 3-32 days.
• The incubation period for eggs ranges from 10-25 days, depending on the temperature.
• The larva goes through six larval instars (up to 12, depending on the type of food).
• The duration of the larval stage is from 33-100 days.
• The pupal stage lasts from 5-18 days.
• The adult insect lives from 170-200 days (and may live from 1-1.5 years sometimes).
• The insect has 4-5 overlapping generations per year.

Damage and Economic Implications

• The insect infests stored dates, flour, grains, dried fruits, nuts, and other stored foodstuffs.
• It does not cause economic damage.

2. Confused Flour Beetle

General Description

Life Cycle and Common Characteristics

• The female lays 350-450 eggs on stored foodstuffs during her lifetime.
• The incubation period for eggs ranges from 5-25 days, depending on the temperature.
• The duration of the larval stage is 33 days.
• The duration of the pupal stage is from 6-20 days.
• The adult insect lives from 170-200 days.
• The insect has 4-5 overlapping generations per year.

Damage and Economic Implications

• The insects is found on stored foodstuffs such as wheat, wheat, and corn flour, as well as dates that are packed in warehouses.
• It does not cause economic damage.

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.