Literature There is extensive literature available on food pests. Scientific articles deal with specific parts of pest problems. Some of them are available on the Internet and you can also see pictures and descriptions of each pest there. You can use the animals’ Latin names as keywords. Determination books with detailed keys are available. The […]

Integrated control that combines prevention and control will always require a higher degree of transparency than regular pest control, simply because more people are actively involved and it is therefore necessary to be able to communicate well. Inform employees about the pests you want to avoid. You may want to show them what the pests […]

The assessment and approval of active substances takes place in the EU, but it is the authorities in each member state that set the conditions for uses of the substances. Resistance Pests can develop resistance against the poisons that we use. It is not the individuals that become resistant. Resistance occurs because the control removes […]

Drying-out: Most food pests can survive during fairly dry conditions. This applies to both flour moths and rice weevils. When they have enough to eat, they can live by just 1% RH. Drying will however even for these pests be a stress factor that may increase the effect of simultaneously applied chemical control agents. Xeric […]

When you find pests in unopened packagings, the explanation might be that they arrived with the goods. However, it is also a possibility that they have penetrated through the packaging either in the storage, the store or at the customers’ homes. But no matter how it happened the consumer will inevitably make the manufacturer responsible […]

It is hardly possible to make a building completely pest proof, but on the other hand, it is foolish to just invite them in. Proofing windows and other entry points, such as ventilation openings and holes, pipe ducts and vents with mesh can be a simple and effective measure. The mesh will of course have […]

New raw materials or finished products that arrive in a building must be viewed upon with suspicion until it is certain that they are not infested with live pests. If practically possible, the products should be checked before it arrives – that means by the supplier. Recently arrived goods should be kept isolated from the […]

At our latitude, most food pests rely on heated rooms and cannot survive out in the open for long. Thus one may be inclined to forget what is going on outside the company walls. Mice, rats and birds always come in from outside. Problems with certain insects are due to factors outside the company’s environment, […]

Once pests are determined in a company or in food, you start with 1) determining the species and 2) how many there are and 3) how they are distributed. 4) Then one should seek to state exactly what the problem is. The insects may play no role as pests in this context. 5) Finally you […]

For most purposes, hand sorting or screening of a fraction of the product may be sufficient. In more special cases it is possible to use techniques that are adapted to each type of material and the animals you would expect to find in them. Hand sorting: Use a metal tray with sides that are at […]

The number of samples, their sizes and the choice of research methods are based on the level of certainty you want. For that kind of cost-benefit considerations you should let a zoologist help to define the problem and propose solutions to suit the individual cases. Samples may be taken as samples of packaged goods or […]

Raw materials must in principle be regarded with the possibility of infestations as they are received, and they should always be examined for pests before put in a warehouse. If the products are heavily infested you will almost always be able to find some of the pests on the outside of the packaging. It is […]

Very few pests sit out in the open on walls, ceilings and floors during daytime. The ones that do are easy to spot, so it can still be worthwhile to start looking here. Perhaps you can spot moth larvae heading up towards a place where they can pupate. On walls it is possible to find […]

An inspection should include a tour of the company’s environment in order to ascertain whether there are habitats for pests or things that are directly appealing to them. Spilled raw material, return freight and waste must be checked first.

It is an advantage to be able to detect an infestation early on so that you have time to take action before it spreads. The surroundings, facilities and raw materials should be examined regularly. The purpose of an inspection may also be to see the extent of an infestation or maybe just to monitor the […]

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 […]

Adult common black ants and adult wasps can feel attracted to sugared goods, pastry, cakes, ice cream, juice etc. To ants sweet foods are simply a substitute for aphid excrement. When wasps bring meat to their larvae in the nest, the larvae secrete drops of sweet liquid to them. When the nests disintegrates in the […]

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 […]

1. Grain pests: Granary, rice and corn weevils only develop inside large starchy seeds or equivalent products, for example, macaroni, noodles or hard-pressed flour. The man-made storages with lots of large starchy seeds (wheat, rye, barley, oats, rice, corn, etc.) have become their main habitat. The larvae of most other grain pests eat of the […]

The “omnivorous” cockroaches, crickets, earwigs, silverfish, ants, rats, mice and birds move from place to place to find food. They rarely live directly in the products on which they feed. Offspring of cockroaches and crickets, earwigs and silverfish seek food the same way as the adult insects immediately after hatching. Offspring of ants, rats, mice […]

It is envisioned that each species has a definite place in the natural order. A niche is simply the name for that job that an animal or insect performs within nature. The animals and insects that we call food pests can live in man-made situations whenever they correspond to the animals’ niches in nature. The […]

(Pests that certainly do not belong in the zoological system). You may experience that certain people claim that there are pests in their food and homes without anybody else being able to verify the existence of these pests. Those pests are often described to behave differently than pests usually do, and their appearances do not […]