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What insects live off and live in

The basic nutrient requirements are largely the same for all animals. What, among other things, makes the animals different from each other is the ability of each species and phase to satisfy these requirements with what they eat. Versatility is a fundamental requirement for nutrition. Even animals which appear to feed on nutrient-poor or unbalanced diets compensate in different ways, for example by feeding heavily or by symbionts in the intestines.

Animals cannot live off too pure foods. Insects cannot live in white sugar. It is simply too much of a unilateral food. Sometimes you can find booklice in sugar bags, but if you look closely you will see that the insects are sitting high up on the bag’s interior, where the combination of sugar, paper and humidity has fostered the microscopic fungi that booklice feed on. The insects that live in dry flour do not thrive very well in the flour with low grind levels wherein it mainly consists of starch. At higher grind levels, the flour will contain several amino acids and vitamins, insects will perform correspondingly better, they will develop quicker, get more offspring. Potato flour is probably the worst food that you can offer to food pests. There are no known pests in potato flour unless it is stale or contaminated. Potato flour is not just a unilateral diet but potato flour has physical properties that remove the wax from the insect exoskeletons, after which they die due to fluid loss through the leaky exoskeleton.

The insect body also has an impact on what foods they can exploit. Booklice and sugar mites can live on the surface of flour, but are too fragile to dig into the flour. Those booklice that are seen on top of an otherwise untouched bag of flour are thus the total number of booklice in that bag of flour. Flour mites and confused flour beetles are better suited to dig into flour and are not always seen on the surface.
In densely packed grain live only insects that are small enough to travel in the gaps between the kernels. All other large insects must stay on the surface.

As pedestrians insects like mites are unsurpassed. They can walk to virtually everything and in all angles with gravity. However, they cannot pass a thin layer of talcum powder or an even thinner layer of petroleum jelly. It prevents them from getting a hold with their feet.

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
D: Effective monitoring and communication
Practical information
Index

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