• Pests in House and Home
  • Bedbugs – Bites, Stings and Itches
  • Food Pests

Pestium.uk

Europe's largest scientific bug site

You are here: Home / Food Pests / Niches of food pests / C: The dead plant niche

C: The dead plant niche

1. Pests in withered, dry plants:
Dry plants are mainly infested by drugstore beetles and cigarette beetles and their close relatives, the spider beetles. It is likely that they in nature live closely by bird nests and other animals, where they feed on spilled feed and plant tissue that the nests are made of. What makes them interesting as food pests is their ability to tolerate much of the natural toxins in plant tissue. They have a special fondness for spices (pepper, saffron, nutmeg, cinnamon, vanilla etc). Some species feed on tobacco and you can also expect to find them in dry soup vegetables, soup powder, dried flowers and leaves used for tea or herbal substances. It is not important what form these herbal substances take. The pests can find them even if they are included in tablets and lozenges.

2. Pests in mouldy plant tissue:
Dead, moist plant tissue in our latitudes is degraded by fungus. Flour mites, sugar mites, house mites, booklice and plaster beetles graze on these fungi, whether they grow on food, packaging or on the walls of the premises. Brown house moth larvae can only develop in goods which are in moisture equilibrium with 80% RH or more. Therefore it is assumed that micro-fungi are also a necessary part of their diet.

3. Pests in decaying and fermenting plant tissue:
The prune mite feeds on bacterial decomposition of sugar in fruit and can be found in dried fruit when the water content is too high. The house fly and the lesser house fly can develop in fermenting and rotting accumulations of plant tissue. In the case of livestock these breeding sites are replaced by animal manure that also contains amounts of plant tissue degradation. Fruit flies belong to the same niche. They lay their eggs in fermented fruits or products with similar qualities (fruit juice, ketchup, beer, etc.).

Food Pests
Introduction
An old problem
Competition for food
Pests can ruin stored goods
Why not just eat the insects
Some insects are unhealthy to eat
Allergy to pests
Transmission of infectious diseases
Where do pests come from?
Synanthrope species
(1) The house dust mite and the sugar mite
(2) The firebrat and the silverfish
(3) The German cockroach and the forest cockroach
(4) The rust-red flour beetle and the confused flour beetle
(5) The merchant grain beetle and the saw-toothed grain beetle
(6) The cigarette beetle and the drugstore beetle
(7) The rice weevil and the granary weevil
(8) The pharaoh ant and the common black ant
History of the dark flour beetle
Pests in bird's nests
Mould fauna
The Look and Behaviour of pests
Insect appearance
Internal
Insect development
Insect senses
Behaviour
Water and Moisture
Temperature
What insects live off and live in
The Air
Mites
Bug Indentification
The various species
Mites
The flour mite
The sugar mite
The common house mite
The Lardoglyphus zacheri
The prune mite
The cheese mite
The house dust mite
The Cheyletus eruditus
Silverfish
The Silverfish
The firebrat
Cockroaches
The German cockroach
The Oriental cockroach
The brown-banded cockroach
The American cockroach
The extermination of cockroaches
Crickets
Earwigs
Booklice
Butterflies
The Mediterranean flour moth
The warehouse moth
Tropical warehouse moth
The brown house moth
The Indian meal moth
Grain beetles
The saw-toothed grain beetle
The merchant grain beetle
The rust-red grain beetle
Flour beetles
The yellow mealworm beetle
The lesser mealworm beetle
The dark flour beetle
The confused flour beetle
The rust-red flour beetle
The bolting cloth beetle
Furniture beetles
The drugstore beetle
The cigarette beetle
Bostrychidae
The lesser grain borer
True weevils snout beetles
The granary weevil
The rice weevil
The corn weevil
Bean weevils
The common bean weevil
The coffee bean weevil
Skin beetles
The bacon beetle
The dermestid beetle
The leather beetle
The khapra beetle
The reesa vespulae
Chequered beetles
The red-legged ham beetle
The red-breasted copra beetle
The black-legged ham beetle
Spider beetles
The Australian spider beetle
The white-marked spider beetle
The golden spider beetle
The smooth spider beetle
Plaster beetles
Flies
The common house fly
The lesser house fly
Blowflies
The grey flesh fly
The cheese skipper
Fruit flies
Hymenoptera
The common black ant
The pharaoh ant
Wasps
Birds
The domestic pigeon
The house sparrow
Prevention and control of birds
Rodents
The house mouse
The yellow-necked mouse
Mouse prevention
Mouse control
The brown rat
The black rat
Rat prevention
Rat control
Imaginary pests
Niches of food pests
A: The Waste Niche
B: The seed niche
C: The dead plant niche
D: The sugary excrement niche
E: The carrion niche
Prevention and Control, Integrated Control
A. Inspection of the company and its environment
The environment
The premises
Examination of raw materials and food on site
Sampling
Laboratory methods for detection of pests in food
B. Statement of the problem
C. Prevention and control
1. Proper organisation of the company
2. Proper operation
3. Exclusion, proofing buildings
4. Packaging
5. Non-chemical control measures
6. Chemical control
Resistance
D: Effective monitoring and communication
Appendix
Literature
Extermination with poison
International trade
Colouration of small, pale animals
Index

Copyright © 2021 · The publisher Pestium Inc. · Europe's largest knowledge database on pests.
Copying and reproduction without permission is prosecuted without prior notice