Butterflies are easily recognised from other types of insects by their four large wings that are studded with coloured dust that rubs off easily. Mouth parts are built like a proboscis, which when not in use is rolled up like a spring under the head. Butterflies have complete metamorphosis and development from egg to adult […]
Booklice
Latin: Psocoptera or Copeognatha. Booklice is an insect family, which in Europe includes several hundred species. They are small insects with rather broad heads and smooth skin. They are rather small, no more than 1 – 2 mm in length and the species may only be determined under a microscope. Most are pale and yellowish, […]
The extermination of cockroaches
Before you start the extermination, it is practical to locate the insects’ hiding places. Cockroaches will swarm into hiding if you suddenly turn on the light in a dark room. Spray containing pyrethrin in the suspected cracks will chase the cockroaches out. For the extermination you can use aerosols or sprays containing pyrethrin (or an […]
The American cockroach
Latin: Periplaneta americana. The large, beautiful American cockroaches are originally from central Africa, but have been shipped to the United States on slave ships. They are seen regularly in food, but do not thrive under Northern European conditions. A similar species the Australian cockroach is also found in food occasionally. Both species can only survive […]
The brown-banded cockroach
Latin: Supella longipalpa. An adult, brown-banded cockroach is about 1 cm long, light brown with lighter drawings. This elegant insect began to appear in Northern Europe in the 1970s and has gradually become common. It requires heat to thrive, any temperature between 25 and 30 ° C will do. It can survive in dry places. […]
The Oriental cockroach
Latin: Blatta orientalis. The Oriental cockroach is not as common as the German cockroach. It is shiny black and is up to 2.5 cm long. Elytrons are almost entirely missing in the females, but they cover part of the males’ abdomen. The Oriental cockroach cannot fly. It climbs poorly and is mostly found on the […]
The German cockroach
Latin: Blatella germanica. This is the most common of the cockroaches that occur in connection with food in Northern European countries. It is approximately 12 mm long and have well-developed elytrons that cover the entire abdomen. The breast is yellowish brown with two dark stripes. Under the elytrons are quite well-developed flying wings. They are […]
Cockroaches
250 million years ago, cockroaches existed, which were similar to those we know today. They are considered to be primitive insects. The vast majority of cockroach species live out in the open and do not come into contact with humans. Usually cockroaches are primarily tropical insects. The cockroaches which now live with us in houses […]
The firebrat
Latin: Thermobia domestica. The adult is almost 2 cm long. It is gray with dark spots. The firebrat requires more heat than silverfish to thrive. At temperatures below 25 ° C it cannot survive nor reproduce. At 27 ° C the eggs hatch in 44 days and the full development to maturity takes almost a […]
The Silverfish
Latin: Lepisma saccharina Silverfish are silvery glistening and can be up to 1 cm long. Silverfish hide in cracks and crevices during daylight. They are common in basements and attics, where they can be found in birds’ nests and old, abandoned wasps’ nests. Silverfish is practically omnivorous, with a preference for starchy foods. Their protein […]
Silverfish
( Latin: Order Thysanura) With their silvery scales and nimble, meandering movements, they can seem similar to glistening small fish. Silverfish have biting mouth parts and are insects. Characteristic are the three wires at the rear end. It’s been 300 million years since the first silver fish-like animal appeared. Some believe that all the various […]
The Cheyletus eruditus
Latin: Cheyletus eruditus. The Cheyletus eruditus is often seen along with other mites in hay, straw, grain and granulated products of cereal origin. It is slightly larger than the largest of the other storage mites, has grooved skin and well-developed enormous claws. They act as a pair of pliers when the Cheyletus eruditus captures other […]
The house dust mite
Latin: Dermatophagoides pteronyssinus and D.farinae. In the wild they most likely live in and around birds’ nests, but may occasionally occur as storage pests. The two species are somewhat similar to the flour mite, but the flour mites have smooth skin and the house dust mites have grooved skin. It is possible to find them […]
The cheese mite
Latin: Tyrolichus casei. Up to 0.7 mm long, whitish body with yellowish or red legs. The cheese mite is the most common of the mites that live in cheese and in places where cheese is stored. The cheese mite prefers substrates with available protein and high-fat foods. It cannot dig into cheese, but infests cheese […]
The prune mite
Latin: Carpoglyphus lactis. Whitish, with an oval body, about 0.4 mm long. Its mouth parts are pointed, conical protrusions on the body. Each leg ends in a small claw, which sits on a patch of skin. Prune mites occur on substrates containing sugar by bacterial degradation of lactic acid, acetic acid, or succinic acid. It […]
The Lardoglyphus zacheri
Lat: Lardoglyphus zacheri. Whitish, oval and can be up to 0.6 mm long. All legs end in double claws except the males’ legs where the third pair of legs end with two characteristic thorns and the fourth pair of legs end with single claws. This is a mite that lives on high-protein material and with […]
The common house mite
( Latin: Glycyphagus domesticus) Lat: Glycyphagus domesticus. Also called the furniture mite. The common house mite is very similar to the sugar mite. It can be seen indoors in humid spaces where it can form large populations in the autumn. It rarely contaminates food or animal feed. Both the sugar mite and the common house […]
The sugar mite
Lat: Lepidoglyphus destructor (synonym: Glycyphagus destructor). The body is white and can be up to 0.6 mm long. The sugar mite is covered with long hair sticking out in all directions. Each leg ends in a very thin and long drawn joint. The sugar mite feeds on the fungi that infest hay, straw and grain. […]
The flour mite
Latin: Acarus siro (synonyms are Tyroglyphus farinae and Aleurobius farinae). Also called forage mite. A white, oval mite with red or yellow legs. It can be up to 0.65 mm long. The main characteristic of the flour mite is that the male has a large, thorn-shaped outgrowth on the first pair of legs. The flour […]
Mites
Only a fraction of the thousand species in Northern Europe can form larger populations in food. Mite populations can develop rapidly. This can result in the strange phenomenon we call “living dust”. It is made up of large quantities of larvae and nymphs, which, due to lack of food and space, migrates out of the […]
The various species
The insects which are referred to hereafter are grouped by relationship that is relatively easy to recognise after looking at our visual key in chapter 4. Within each group is listed the species most frequently encountered in food in western countries.
Bug Indentification
When someone finds a new animal, which is not yet known to science, and describes its appearance, it is the describer’s privilege to give it a species name – in Latin. Along with a family name, also in Latin, placed in front, this gives it a unique identification. However, in texts in other languages than […]
Mites
Since mites are arthropods just like insects, much of what is told about insects actually also cover mites. Mites look like tiny spiders and have eight legs. There is no head and no abdomen. A mite is just a bladder-shaped body which has legs on the underside and the front two pairs of feeding limbs […]
The Air
When the air which passes over or through a product changes the temperature and humidity of that product, the mites and insects react to it. Air also has other properties that affect insects. Carbon dioxide has a concentration at 0.03 % in air and if it rises to a few percent, the air is toxic […]
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 […]
Temperature
It is old knowledge that flies in the kitchen like to sit on a warm stove. House flies prefer to sit on objects and surfaces where the temperature is about 35 ° C. All insects will, if they have the opportunity to choose, seek out a particular temperature zone. The preferred temperature will normally be […]
Water and Moisture
No animals can live without water, but some can get by with the water created in their own metabolic processes. The vast majority of terrestrial animals will drink water whenever they have the opportunity. This applies to both insects and vertebrates. The black rat, for example, does not have to drink, but does so anyway. […]
Behaviour
There is nothing to suggest that the insects consider their behaviour. When insects do something that looks reasonable, it is due to the innate, appropriate behaviours – that are built into their nervous system – that are triggered under certain conditions in response to certain environmental influences. Most of our knowledge about the storage pests’ […]
Insect senses
All living creatures must have sensory organs that receive information about the outside world, and a nervous system, which can convey the data to be translated into appropriate behaviour. The senses on which insects rely are very much the same, as we know them from ourselves. This means sense of touch, hearing, vision, heat and […]
Insect development
Most insects lay eggs. Some insects like cockroaches and crickets have offspring that looks a lot like the grown insects. However, they do not have wings, their genitals are not yet developed and they often have a different body shape and colour compared to the grown insects. Insects go through a number of development stages […]