STORED PRODUCT INSECTS
What pests do you have loitering around your property? Here’s some tips to spot stored product insects.
STORED PRODUCT INSECTS - WHAT THEY LOOK LIKE
They are exactly what they sound like, stored product insects live and breed in stored products.
Grain weevils
- The female weevil gets through stored products by chewing a small hole into the food material, leaves behind an egg and then seals the hole. The larvae hatch and eat the food until they become a pupa.
Flour beetles
- These beetles are secondary pests that are reddish-brown. They can be found in flour, oatmeal, bran and sometimes in dried fruit, spices and chocolate. The female flour beetle can lay up to 400 eggs on food material with an eight week lifestyle.
Cigarette beetle
- Cigarette beetles are a pest of stored tobacco as its name suggests but it occasionally breeds in stored grains, milled cereal and spices.
Sawtooth grain beetle
- This beetle gets its name from the jagged projections along its thorax. These beetles in their adult form can live to as long as three years with the female depositing 300 eggs at a time.
Keep an eye out for
- Damage to packaging and products like visible holes
- Webbing in products
- Food with discolouration
- Track marks in dust or flour from adult insects
Treatment
Our team always starts with a thorough inspection. One of our techs will inspect the indoor and outdoor areas of your home to identify areas of concentrated pest activity. Evaluating environmental factors like possible sources, breeding habitats, and food sources the SPI (Stored Product Insect) may be relying on.
Based on what we find during our inspection, we’ll design a pest management plan to help control or eliminate SPI populations. This pest management plan will include recommendations including Integrated Pest Management (IPM) practices and techniques that focus on eliminating the pest and resolving the underlying causes of the infestation.
