Buying stock for your pantry is a part of routine. Flour, cereals, pasta noodles, rice, and so forth are common staples found in the pantries across the U.S. Because there is a supply of food conveniently located all together, many pests that filter into your home are attracted to the site; rodents, roaches, ants, and so forth. But because of their size, people often forget about the potential pests that are inadvertently brought into your home in their very food you buy. Pantry pests are often the culprit to contaminated food and the destruction of the food’s packaging. With that in mind, we at A Five Star Termite & Pest Control would like to touch on weevils, moths, and beetles that are frequently found in the pantry.
What Kind of Bugs Can Get into Dry Food?
As lightly mentioned, these particular pests are invading the food that you bring into your pantry. Chocolates, cereals, flours, herbs dried fruits and so on are the foods found in our pantries and cupboards that are often packaged with pests and/or their viable eggs. More often than not, they are unnoticed unless their population draws your attention on them. Flours, cereals, wheat, and other such products are typically infested with weevils and occasionally moths. Moths, however, favor chocolates, dry pet food, and dried fruits. The assortment of beetles, especially the saw-toothed grain beetles are found in your pastas, cereals, and flour. Every now and then people may cross paths with cigarette beetles and drugstore beetles, which are often found in cellulose related products; herbs, spices, and so on.
How Do Pantry Pests Get In?
Many of these pests originate in processing plants, warehouses, delivery trucks, or sometimes in the retail store and once they have dived in to the various packages of food, they then wind up in your pantry. The longer any of the packaged food has the opportunity to sit on the shelf, the more likely they will draw in these pantry pests.
How Long Do Pantry Pests Live?
Moths and beetles evolve in four cycles as they mature throughout their life which includes the egg, larvae, pupa, and adulthood. At any of these 4 stages of life, the pantry pests could be mixed in your food. The eggs however, are generally too tiny for most people to even see, but the larva stage is when these insects wreak the most havoc.
Common Pantry Pests
Pantry pests that are typically the most frequently discovered and the food they infest are as follows:
Cigarette beetle – Food: Rice, dates, seeds, pepper, spices, dried flowers ginger, raisins, and other dried botanicals.
Confused flour beetle – Food: Cereals, meal, and flour.
Drugstore beetle – Food: Dry pet foods, spices, flour, meal, cereals, and pepper.
Granary weevil – Food: Whole grains, rye, beans, bird seed, rice, corn, millet, and caked meal.
Indian meal moth – Food: Grain and grain products, peppers, dry pet food, nuts, powdered milk, candies, dried red, dried fruits, seeds, crackers, meal, and cracked corn.
Maize weevil – Food: Whole grains, corn, millet, rye, beans, bird seed, rice, and caked meal.
Merchant grain beetle – Food: Cereals, cracked seeds, pasta, flour, meal, nuts, and seed dust.
Red flour beetle – Food: Flour, meal, and cereal.
Rice weevil – Food: Whole grains, beans, bird seed, rice, corn, millet, rye and caked meal.
Saw-toothed grain beetle – Food: Meal, nuts, cereals, pasta, flour, cracked seeds, and seed dust.
Pest Inspections, Exclusion, Control, Removal, Management & More in Canyon Lake, Spring Branch, Bulverde, Timberwood Park, Leon Valley, Alamo Heights, New Braunfels, Selma, Live Oak, Converse, Universal City, Cibolo, Seguin, New Berlin, St Hedwig, Adkins, La Vernia, Elmendorf, Losoya, Von Ormy, Macdona & San Antonio, Texas
If pantry pests are a concern in your home, contact A Five Star Termite & Pest Control and let our experts take care of any pest infestation.
