Stored Product Pests

The indian meal moth is a small colourful moth. Larvae, or caterpillars, grow to be about 1/2 of an inch long, they are cream coloured with a brown head. Infestations in packaged products start with small numbers and the longer the product is kept without use the larger the population grows. Indian meal moths infest most milled or ground cereals such as flour and cornmeal and starchy processed products such as crackers, cake mixes, pasta and dog food.

Adult cigarette beetles are oval, about 1/8 of an inch long, reddish-brown in colour and they can fly. Larvae are tiny, white, curved and covered with infested material often causing them to look like tiny lumps of the stored product. They are difficult to detect unless the product is dumped and sifted. These beetles are commonly found in spices such as paprika, ground pepper and ginger, in milled cereals, flour, cornmeal, dry dog food, cosmetics, drugs, as well as some human poisons, pyrethrum dusts and dried flowers.

These beetles are about 1/8 of an inch long, reddish-brown in color, with short and stout antennae. Larvae are slightly longer than adults, they creamy-white with few hairs. Only those flour mills with the most thorough cleaning programs can manage keep populations of flour beetles low. These beetles are typically found in cereal products, dried fruits, spices and similar products.

The saw-toothed grain beetle is a tiny, slender, dark-brown beetle that measures a little under 1/8 of an inch long. They have six saw-like projections on each side of the thorax. At full growth, larvae are slightly smaller than the adults. They become covered with the material they infest and appear to be very small lumps of the product. This grain beetle is typically found in breakfast cereals, dried fruits, flour, pasta, dried meats, chocolate and other similar products.