Latin: Dermestes frischii. In addition to the typical bacon and dermestid beetles, other species which are very similar are imported from overseas. The leather beetle is one of the most common of these. It is quite common in Southern Europe and in countries from which we import raw hides. The leather beetle larvae have the […]
The dermestid beetle
Latin: Dermestes haemorrhoidalis. A very close relative to the bacon beetle. The adult beetles are plain black or dark brown and have golden undersides. It has gradually become common all over Europe, especially in cities, where one of its main habitats is pigeons’ nests. Very littered apartments or businesses where food leftovers and kitchen waste […]
The bacon beetle
Latin: Dermestes lardarius. Also called the larder beetle. Brownish black and easily recognisable on a bright fret with six dark spots across the front of the elytrons. The larvae are 15 mm long and the adult beetles measure 7-9 mm in length. The larvae are brown with a light underside and are clearly articulated with […]
Skin beetles
Skin beetles are consistently strong, arched beetles with oval or round body shapes. The surface is almost always covered with small, coloured hair or dandruff, which provides distinctive drawings. The larvae are covered with long hair of various kinds. Some of the hair is the cause of skin irritation in people. They feed primarily on […]
The coffee bean weevil
Latin: Araeocerus fasciculatus. This small, dark brown beetle is known primarily from stocks of unroasted coffee beans. It is common in tropical and subtropical coastal countries, and can also be seen in corn, cocoa, nutmeg and the seeds of leguminous plants. It requires food that is not too dry. The water content must be equal […]
The common bean weevil
Latin: Acantoscelides obtectus. This is a 2 – 4 mm long, oval beetle, which is brown on the top side with yellowish green hair and light gray stripes. The common bean weevil is a tropical species based in South America. It comes to Europe with imported goods and since it can complete its development at […]
Bean weevils
In seeds of the various kinds of pea and bean plants different granivorous weevils live. They infest the seeds already when the plants are in the fields and are later on transported to warehouses where they can continue to do damage. The result is seen as rotten peas, beans, lentils etc. Most of these weevils […]
The corn weevil
Latin: Sitophilus zeamais. Looks similar to the rice weevil, and the exact determination of this species is a job for specialists. It is occasionally found in imported rice and behaves just like the rice weevil. The corn weevil has only recently been recognized as an individual species, separate from the rice weevil. Countries which do […]
The rice weevil
Latin: Sitophilus oryzae. Very similar to the granary weevil, and you cannot tell the difference with the naked eye. With a little magnification however, it is possible to see that the rice weevil has four red spots on the elytrons. The rice weevil is on average slightly smaller and moves faster than the granary weevil. […]
The granary weevil
Latin: Sitophilus granarius. The adult beetle is 2.5 to 5 mm long. The offspring is red-violet, and it later becomes brownish and old beetles are all black. It cannot fly. Its movements are quite slow and are somewhat similar to crayfish. In the winter cold storages, it is motionless and it becomes active when the […]
True weevils snout beetles
The weevils include approximately 40,000 described species, and this is therefore one of the largest groups of insects known to man. Weevils have mouth parts that are located on the tip of a proboscis-like protrusion. The nut weevil is a commonly known beetle, which is responsible for the wormholes you see in ripe hazelnuts. The […]
The lesser grain borer
Latin: Rhyzopertha dominica. 2 – 3 mm long, reddish-brown to black-brown beetle. The prothorax is large and rounded in front like a hood, which on the top and in the front is covered with small lumps. The lumps help when the beetle drills. Head with mouth parts is on the underside of the prothorax and […]
Bostrychidae
Bostrychidae is a tropical beetle family which mostly consists of wood boring species. A few species, such as the lesser grain borer, have, however, adapted themselves to a life in foods.
The cigarette beetle
Latin: Lasioderma serricorne. The cigarette beetle is 2-4 mm long and resembles the drugstore beetle very much. With a little magnification you will notice that the cigarette beetles’ antennae are serrated. Each link is a serration. Drugstore beetle antennae have rounded corners. Cigarette beetles, like drugstore beetles, live in many kinds of products, like rice, […]
The drugstore beetle
Latin: Stegobium paniceum. 2 – 4 mm long, reddish-brown and hairy. It is widely spread all over the world. It lives in bread. Not freshly baked bread and the like, but the hard baked goods or stale, dry bread. It lives in various products: biscuits, dog biscuits, cookies, cereals, rice, pasta, herbs and pharmaceuticals to […]
Furniture beetles
In the family of furniture beetles, Anobiidae, there are only two species that have adapted to living in food. The drugstore beetle is the more common of the two, while the cigarette beetle is rare outside actual tobacco stocks. Like all furniture beetles the larvae live in burrows, which they gnaw and the result is […]
The rust-red flour beetle
Latin: Tribolium castaneum (synonym: T. navale). This beetle differs from the confused flour beetle by the three external antennae joints being much thicker than the ones of said beetle. The antennae joints of the confused flour beetle are gradually thicker toward the tip. Both in terms of biology, harmfulness and extermination the rust-red flour beetle […]
The confused flour beetle
Latin: Tribolium confusum. 3-4 mm long beetles ranging in colour from light reddish brown to dark brown. The confused flour beetle and its larvae look like small versions of the dark flour beetle and its larvae. It can damage grain and feed storages, but can also be found in grocery warehouses and in private households. […]
The dark flour beetle
Latin: Tribolium destructor. A dark brown beetle that is 5-6 mm long and 2 mm wide. The larvae can be up to 10 mm long, plump and wormlike. Both the dark flour beetle and its larvae look like small versions of the yellow mealworm beetle and its larva, the mealworm. This species originates from Africa. […]
The yellow mealworm beetle
Latin: Tenebrio molitor. Its larvae are probably best known as those mealworms that are sold as animal feed. It is a rather large beetle, 1.5 cm long. The yellow mealworm beetle lives in birds’ nests, where the larvae feed on the food spills that accumulate in the nests when the young birds are fed. The […]
Flour beetles
The species which we refer to as flour beetles are similar to each other by occurring in flour and other cereals. These beetles are flat, elongated, shiny beetles with almost parallel sides. The prothorax is quite broad. The largest of the species are black, the smallest maroon. These beetles belong to the family of darkling […]
The rust-red grain beetle
Latin: Cryptolestes ferrugineus or Laemophloeus f. The genus Cryptolestes is a complex of several species that are all very similar to each other. They can all occur in grains, bran, flour and the like, often in very large numbers. The rust-red grain beetle is 2 mm long and it is uni-coloured. The sides of the […]
The merchant grain beetle
Latin: Oryzaephilus mercator. Looks somewhat like the saw-toothed grain beetle but differs from it by the size and shape of a small outgrowth behind the eye (p. 50). In households, it is as common as the saw-toothed grain beetle, but it is not seen in grain stocks. The merchant grain beetle prefers nuts without shells […]
The saw-toothed grain beetle
Latin: Oryzaephilus surinamensis. 2.5 – 3.5 mm long, slender and brown-black. The distinctive features are the serrated growths on the prothorax side edges just behind the head. It cannot infest whole, undamaged kernels and it mainly eats seeds. In goods of cereal origin, flour and grain in particular, it is one of our most common […]
Grain beetles
Elongated small beetles, 2 – 3.5 mm long. The saw-toothed grain beetle, the merchant grain beetle and the rust-red grain beetle are primarily of interest. In addition to these, a large number of less known grain beetles exist, which are rare in Europe, which include Cryptolestes minutus (commonly known as the flat grain beetle or […]
The Indian meal moth
Latin: Plodia interpunctella. A beautiful little moth with eye-catching colours. The elytrons’ inner third is light gray, while the rest is reddish brown. The larvae are yellow-white with dark brown heads. The larvae are 12 – 13 mm long when ready for pupation. The Indian meal moth probably originated from Europe, but can now be […]
The brown house moth
Latin: Hofmannophila pseudopretella. This is quite a large moth, usually 1.5 cm long. The wings are almost bronze-brown and the elytrons have small but distinct dark spots. The largest of the larvae are about 2 cm in length. They are whitish except for the head which is dark. All types of plant material can be […]
Tropical warehouse moth
Latin: Ephestia cautella. The tropical warehouse moth also belongs to the chocolate moths and is very similar to the previous two species, both in appearance and way of life. The tropical warehouse moth has higher demands for temperature and is particularly prevalent in tropical and subtropical regions. The tropical warehouse moth can attack virtually all […]
The warehouse moth
Lat: Ephestia elutella – Also called cocoa moth or tobacco moth. It belongs to the group of moths called chocolate moths. The warehouse moth is similar to the Mediterranean flour moth. The warehouse moth is common in warehouses and households throughout the temperate part of the globe. It infests, among other foods, grain, seed, feed, […]
The Mediterranean flour moth
Latin: Anagasta kuehniella or Ephestia kuehniella. The rather narrow wings have a span of 20-25 mm. Forewings are leaden with dark, zig-zag-shaped transverse lines and dots. The rear wings are pale gray with long fringes on the back edge. The Mediterranean flour moth larvae which can be 15-19 mm long, are white, pink or bright […]