Pest Control Across East Anglia & Beyond 

Appearance: 3 to 4mm, oval slightly bulbous body, waisted between the neck shield and abdomen, long legs, mid brown, overall appearance like a spider, body covered in velvety golden-brown hairs, long simple antennae which have 11 segments. Larvae grow to 5 to 7 mm and are yellowish-white with a yellowish-brown head, there is a small dark mark on the underside of the last body segment.  

Breeding: 100-200 eggs laid singly, hatch after 7 to 10 days at 25°C, larvae develop over 40 to 50 days with 3 skin changes, pupation for 20 to 25 days in a cocoon, adult emerges after 3 weeks. Life cycle is 4 to 6 months. There are 2 or 3 generations per year. Adults can live up to a year.  

Food: Legumes, seeds, grain, flour, herbs, cocoa, spices, fruit, nuts and milk powder, scavengers of dead insect remains.  

Where do Australian Spider Beetles live? Warehouses in spillages or badly rotated stock, flour silos in the dust on floors, dried- milk powder bagging plants and storage areas, dried soup manufacturers, cereal producers and the chocolate industry, will quickly migrate in a premises and is a very common pest in the food industry. This Beetle is gregarious and may be found in numbers behind sacks or in a void or crack. Often seen in flour spillage in the bases of flour silos.

Damage: As a foreign body their presence can cause product rejection and possible litigation or an expensive recall. 

Appearance: The adult insect is 2-4 mm, reddish brown, its head is tucked below the thorax, it has a loose three-segmented club antennae, the wing covers are finely ridged. The body is covered in very fine short yellowish hairs. Larvae are white with a yellow head and the body is fleshy and curved. This Beetle is very similar in appearance to the Cigarette or Tobacco Beetle and the Furniture Beetle.  

Breeding: 20-100 eggs are laid in the food material, they hatch within 1-2 weeks and the larvae at that time are only 0.5mm. Larvae chew their way through the foodstuff and any packaging making tiny holes, they have 4 moults as larvae until full grown at 5mm, this takes up to 5 months. The cocoon is formed in the food material and is covered with tiny food particles. The adult Beetle hatches after about 2 weeks. It leaves the pupal cocoon after about 8 days. The life cycle is completed in approx. 200 days at 17°C but in 70 days at 28°C. Adults live for 6-8 weeks and do not feed.  

Food: Biscuits, pet food, cereals, biscuits, old dried dough, breakfast cereals, spices, herbs, flour, bread, cake mixes, nuts, dried fruits and seeds. It has been reported in curry powder and drugs. Sometimes it is found in birds nests and can infest homes through light fittings, via cracks & crevices and can be seen in large numbers on window sills as they are attracted to natural UV light.  

Where do Biscuit Beetles live? Often reported in bakeries especially in bread coolers and slicing plant, warehouses, restaurant and hotel stockrooms, it is also a pantry pest and often found in stored food samples in labs and test kitchens. Look on window sills.  

Damage: The insects boring sometimes damage books and papers in storage. The larvae have been known to penetrate tin foil. 

All of these three related Beetles can vary greatly in size and can easily be confused. Sometimes the 

Furniture Beetle can be dwarfed but they tend to be darker in colour in general but colour can vary as well. Often the habitat where they are found and expert identification can be the only way to determine the species.  

A) Furniture Beetle - Very helmet-like looking thorax obscuring the head  

B) Cigarette Beetle - Less pronounced thorax - redder in colour  

C) Biscuit Beetle  - Biscuit beetle has punctured wing cases 

Appearance: 3 to 4 mm, uniform red brown to dark brown, slim with segments of antennae gradually broader towards tip, no ridges above each eye. The Confused flour beetle is also know as Tribolium confusum and very similar to the rust red Flour beetle.  

Breeding: 350-400 eggs are laid at 2 to 10 a day over 100 days in food material, the egg hatches in 6-14 days, larvae take 4 to 5 weeks to develop, with 5-11 moults over 3- 9 weeks, pupae are formed and adults hatch in 9-17 days. Adults live 15 to 20 months. There may be up to 5 generations per year 

Food: Flour, cereal products, grain, oats, rice bran, nuts, dried fruit, spices and chocolate.  

Where do Confused flour beetles live? Found throughout the food industry possibly in any premises handling or storing flour. Flour mills, bakeries and silos are favoured. This is a very common pest species and along with the rust red Flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum) it is possibly one of the most reported insects in the food industry.  

Damage: They will infest stored food causing much damage to the product and they spoil flour by taint. As a foreign body their presence can cause product rejection and possible litigation or expensive recall. 

Appearance: Adults of this species are oblong, flattened small beetles (2-2.5 mm long), with the head and thorax relatively big and conspicuous. Adult: Very flattened, light brown, antennae hair-like and sometimes very long. It is 1.5 to 2.5 mm long.  

Breeding:  

Eggs: The adult female may lay between 200 and 400 eggs, laid at random either loosely or in crevices. Larva: The larva has a brown head, biting mouthparts and three pairs of legs. It is capable of moving freely through loosely packed commodities such as grain and flour. There are four larval stages or instars and all of these, particularly the first, succumb quickly in dry conditions.  

Pupa: The fourth larval instar spins a cocoon which often has fragments of the food material incorporated into its outer surface. The pupal stage is formed within the cocoon.  

Adult: When the pupal stage is completed, the newly formed adult emerges by chewing through its cocoon. Long lived, surviving 6 to 9 months, feeds, flies, walks rapidly, able to enter packaged foods through very small cracks.  

Food: The beetle is a widespread secondary pest of stored grains. It usually attacks the germs of broken or cracked grains thus reducing germination. The adult is one of the smallest beetles which infest stored cereals and cereal products  

Where do Flat grain beetles live? Warehouses, silos, mills, food processing factories and in stored grain / flour.  

Damage: They will infest stored food causing spoilage and often seen as a foreign body contaminant. 

Appearance: 10-14 mm long, 20-22 mm wingspan, blue-grey forewings have transverse dark navy bars with a row of dark spots at tip & whitish hind wings. The larvae is up to 16mm long and is creamy white to a pinkish or almost pale yellow colour. There are two lines of dark spots along its back and each one is close to a hair. There are also a pair of dark ring marks near the head and close to its rear end. The pupae are yellow in colour and turns reddish brown shortly before the moth emerges.  

Breeding: Approx. 350 eggs laid following the females mating, which is soon after emergence. This is usually within 4 days, eggs hatch from 4-28 days, they grow to 15-19 mm after 3-5 moults. The larvae pupate in the food material and sometimes over winter before pupating. Pupation lasts for 16 days, life cycle in the UK is 3-6 months.  

Food: It favours cereals, bran, wheat germ, nuts and cereal based products, flour products.  

Where do Flour moths live? Throughout the flour milling and baking industry and anywhere where flour is used in processing. Seen in roller mills in flour mills, mixers, pastry making plant and provers in bakeries. Inside plant dead spaces, brought in on bagged flour and the principal pest in flour bins and silos, especially in dust collection bags. Indicator sometimes of poor cleaning schedules and suppliers. Often common in provender mills.  

Damage: The larvae move quickly into foodstuffs after hatching and they spin threads, which binds the foodstuff together. These threads cause a large amount of webbing that can clog machinery and spouting etc.

Appearance: Foreign grain beetles are about 2-3mm long and reddish-brown in colour. They have a slightly raised peg on both sides of the thorax near the head. It is a fast moving beetle.  

Breeding: The adult female may lay 500 eggs, laid at random either loosely or in crevices.  

Food: This beetle is a fungus feeder and thrives in damp conditions and where moulds are likely to grow e.g. on pallets, packaging etc. It is a secondary stored product pest. Foreign grain 

beetles normally exist outside as scavengers, feeding on plant and animal debris and their associated fungi.  

Where do Foreign grain beetles live? They are common in August and September as temperatures cool and humidity and rainfall increases in the UK but are more active earlier in the year in northern Europe. Foreign grain beetle numbers drop dramatically in the autumn once the humidity falls below 60%. Warehouses, silos, mills, food processing factories and in stored grain and sometimes on the surfaces of finished products in storage especially around pallet wrap film. The small size and high mobility of this beetle makes it difficult to keep them out of premises. They can easily enter through gaps in the fabric. 

Damage: They will infest stored food causing spoilage and often seen as a foreign body contaminant. They readily fly and commonly Foreign grain beetles enter into buildings and will cross infest stock in warehouses when present. 

Appearance: 14-20 mm wingspan, the outer halves of forewings are bronzy-reddish brown, the inner halves are light grey to yellow. At rest 8-10 mm long. The larvae are yellowish or white with a light brown head. The body has no markings apart from a pair of faint ring marks near the head and another pair near its rear. The pupa is yellowish-brown.  

Breeding: 150 to 300 eggs laid, individually or in clusters in foodstuffs, the eggs need a temperature of 14C to hatch and at that temperature hatch in 2-8 days. The larvae spin silk webbing amongst the foodstuffs, the larvae develop in 2-6 months in UK or 16 weeks at 20°C, 5 weeks at 30C. It moults 4-7 times and grows to 10-12mm, the larvae is yellowish or white with a light brown head. The pupae are usually in a loose cocoon; the larvae of the second generation hibernate in the cocoon. Egg to adult varies with temperature from 4 to 44 weeks.  

Food: Dried vegetables, herbs, dried fruit especially apricots, nuts especially almonds and walnuts, cocoa beans, confectionery, chocolate, grain and grain products where only the germ is eaten. The larvae will eat through paper, cardboard, foils and most packaging materials. 

Where do Indian meal moths live? Warehouses, in raw materials especially from overseas, the principal pest in the dried fruit and nut processing industry. Commonly found in health food establishments. Often an indicator of badly rotated stock or old stock brought into a premises. 

Damage: The larvae will eat through paper, cardboard, foils and most packaging materials.  

Control: Identify harbourages, quarantine contaminated stock. Treat wall floor junctions and identify where webbing / pupal cases have been deposited. Remove pupal cases. Fog areas to knockdown fly insects 

Appearance: 7 to 9 mm, all black with a whitish transverse band with black flecks, very short clubbed antennae, convex elongate-oval in shape.  

Breeding: 200 to 800 eggs laid each is 2mm long, these hatch in approx. 7 days, larvae are full grown in 6 to 8 weeks, 5 to 6 moults occur and larvae are full grown at 10 to 15 mm. The larvae burrow into a hard material such as wood to pupate, these burrows can be up to 30cm long. They will also pupate in their foodstuffs. Pupation lasts 2-4 weeks. From the time of hatching the adult Beetle lives for 3 months. The whole life cycle can be 2-12 months depending on temperature but at 25°C it is 2 months.  

Food: Animal and animal by-products, hides, guts, dried egg yolk, cured and dried meats, dog biscuits, cheeses, bacon and meat, pork scratchings.  

Where do Larder beetles live? Butchers, meat processing, meat by-products and offal producers, egg products manufacturers. It is also found in butcher’s shops, cheese retailing premises, tanneries and skin processing plants.  

Damage: They will infest stored food causing spoilage and often seen as a foreign body contaminant.

Appearance: The Hide or Leather beetle is similar in shape to the Larder beetle except the wing covers are entirely dark and the body underside is mostly white they are 10mm. All larvae are longer than adult beetles (up to 12-15mm), slender, densely covered with short and long hairs and reddish-brown to black, with two spines on top near the tail end. Larder beetle larvae spines curve backward, Hide or Leather beetle larvae spines curve forward.  

Breeding: Adult Hide or Leather beetles and larvae prefer to feed on raw skins and hides. Females may each lay up to 800 eggs. The life cycle is completed in 60 to 70 days. 

Food: Old wasp and hornet nests are often infested. Flies such as the Cluster fly and Autumn fly, abundant in the autumn, hibernate in home wall voids, attics, overhangs etc. Many die in inaccessible places and become a prime food source for Larder beetles. Stuffed animals, leather, skins, furs, decomposing remains. These beetles will infest museum collections of insects, animals, etc if not properly preserved  

Where do Hide or Leather beetles live? Mature larvae of Hide beetles have the habit of boring into various hard surfaces to pupate, usually preferring softwoods. Some may climb 8 to 12 metres and bore into posts, studs and rafters seriously weakening and "honeycombing" these structures. Larvae are especially troublesome in poultry and pig houses, damaging yellow pine, foam insulation. Larvae have been known to bore through lead and tin materials for pupation also. 

Appearance: 2.5 to 3.5 mm, dark rusty brown, long narrow flattened, 6 teeth on edges of prothorax, 3 ridges on centre of prothorax, antennae with club ends, almost identical to the Saw toothed grain beetle (Oryzaephilus surinamensis), distinguished by the head and thorax shape and eye distance from head to thorax etc.  

Breeding: 150 eggs laid loose in foodstuffs, they hatch in 7-10 days. The newly hatched larvae are 0.9 mm long. They are yellowish white with dark brown flecks and have a brown head. The larvae feed for 6-10 weeks, larvae moult 4 times, the larvae are 3mm when full grown. The cocoon is made up with food particles in which they pupate. Following pupation the adults hatch after 1-3 weeks, life cycle can be 9 weeks. The lowest temperature for breeding is 18°C. The beetle can live up to 3 years. Optimum conditions are 35°C and 90 % RH.  

Food: Primarily in seeds, nuts, processed foods, dried soups, commonly in dried fruit, chocolate products and sugar.  

Where do Merchant grain beetles live? Food processing factories and warehouses usually being imported from overseas in commodities. Found throughout Europe the Far and Middle East. Also common in the USA.

Damage: They will infest stored food causing spoilage and often seen as a foreign body contaminant. 

Appearance: 2.5 to 3.5 mm, dark rusty brown, long narrow flattened, 6 teeth on edges of prothorax, 3 ridges on centre of prothorax, antennae with club ends, almost identical to Merchant grain beetle (Oryzaephilus mercator), distinguished by the head and thorax shape.  

Breeding: 150 eggs laid loose in foodstuffs, they hatch in 7-10 days. The newly hatched larvae are 0.9 mm long. They are yellowish white with dark brown flecks and have a brown head. The larvae feed for 6-10 weeks, larvae moult 4 times, the larvae are 3mm when full grown. The cocoon is made up with food particles in which they pupate. Following pupation the adults hatch after 1-3 weeks, life cycle can be 9 weeks. The lowest temperature for breeding is 18°C. The beetle can live up to 3 years. Optimum conditions are 35°C and 90 % RH.  

Food: Grains and grain products, seeds, nuts, processed foods, dried soups, dried fruit and sugar.  

Where do Saw toothed grain beetles live? Warehouses, silos, mills, food processing factories and in stored grain. The principal grain pest in the UK.  

Damage: They will infest stored food causing spoilage and often seen as a foreign body contaminant. 

Appearance: The Warehouse, Tobacco or Cocoa moth is smaller at 8-10mm but similar to the Flour moth. The forewings are grey with two lighter bands and are bordered by black scales. The larvae are creamy white and can grow to 10mm  

Breeding: Eggs are laid over or near the products. The larvae are mobile over products or bags, where they feed and produced silk which may form large webs. When completely grown, they leave the products and migrate to pupate. Adults are short lived and do not feed. They are active at night and usually fly towards the structure’s roofing. They live for 13 to 14 days and a female may lay 279 eggs.

Food: Nuts, almonds, cocoa beans and dried fruit (it is a major pest and also damages flours, milled cereal products, cocoa etc). It is therefore a very serious pest problem in the chocolate industry. The moths nearly always reach the factory in the raw materials. In addition, the remains of cocoa beans and other materials may be seats of infection, including the machinery itself.  

Where do Warehouse moths live? Warehouses, in raw materials especially from overseas, it is the principal pest in post harvest cocoa and in confectionery production / storage premises.  

Damage: The larvae contaminates products with silk and frass and is significant as a foreign body in food for retail sales. This moth can infest a wide range of cereal, vegetable, seed, and tobacco products. 

Appearance: Reddish or black with reddish-yellow and black markings on the wing-cases (the body is 2-3mm long).  

Breeding: The size of larvae is up to 1.5cm. This beetle has the advantage in its quick development. At a temperature of 25 degrees, this stage of reproduction lasts only 6-7 weeks.  

Food: They can be found in a wide variety of stored food products but mainly lives in old or damp flour, mouldy grain and chaff.  

Where do Waste grain beetles live? Common in mouldy or damp grain and cereals. In some regions it is quite common in stables and cow-sheds. Also found outside in old, rotting deciduous trees and under mouldy, decaying vegetation. It can fly also.  

Damage: Mainly as an unacceptable foreign body in grain and flour products but not a commercial pest as such. 

Appearance: 15 mm long, slightly shiny black or very dark brown, very smooth elongated and oval, medium length antennae without club, some ridges on wing cases.  

Breeding: 80 to 550 eggs laid, up to 40 deposited per day, larvae moult from 9 to 20 times and when 28mm reached they are full grown, migration prior to pupation, adults live 2 to 3 months. Larvae can live 6 to 9 months without food.  

Food: Almost any stored food, flour products, cereals.  

Where do Yellow mealworm beetles live? Cellars / basements in flour mills, silo bottom areas, food warehouses, cereal processors. Usually indicative of poor hygiene practices. Birds nests often a source.  

Damage: They will infest stored food causing spoilage and often a foreign body contaminant.