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You are here: Home / Food Pests / Niches of food pests / E: The carrion niche

E: The carrion niche

Animals and insects that eat dead animals have been studied in the context of forensic matters and ordinary biological curiosity. There is a far from simple relationship between which species that eat carrion, what they eat, and the order in which they appear and also any external circumstances. Some natural scavengers may act as food pests.

1. Pests in damp carrion:
Wasps seek out dead animals to provide feed for their larvae. Maggots live in fresh carrion in the wild, but also place eggs in our meat, which of course, strictly speaking, also is fresh carrion. Cheese skippers often eat moist cheese as a substitute for carrion. It also applies to blowflies, that both cheese and droppings can be eaten instead of carrion. Milk, which is a thin suspension of animal fat and protein, can attract common houseflies and blowflies, when it becomes sour and cheesy, and their larvae can develop in milk residues. Open wounds and infections – also in humans – can tempt blowflies to lay eggs. Pharaoh ants collect meat and can go into wounds.

2. Pests in dry carrion:
Skin beetles (not the khapra beetle) copra beetles, spider beetles and various moth larvae play a major role in the final digestion of animal tissue. Other pests can participate in the feast as animal protein is an attractive food, even for pests that would otherwise be vegetarians. Milled products of animal origin (meat meal, bone meal, dried blood, dried milk, egg powder, cheese powder etc.) also get infested by the scavengers who prefer dry carrion. It is often overlooked that these things are used in many other products which is not immediately reminiscent of dry carrion. This is among other things compound feed for animals, certain fertilizers and dried soups. Animal fat in its pure form (such as butter) or artificial plant fats (such as margarine) is not attractive to insects and mites, but mice, rats and birds like these things.

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

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