Diatomaceous earth (DE) can also be used lightly in areas where drugstore beetles may be lurking. This is an easy way to keep your home from becoming infested. When bringing crops, such as beans and other seeds, into the home., it is a good idea to freeze them overnight to kill any larvae that may be lurking. Inspecting foodstuffs and bulk items before you bring them home can prevent infestation. You may also see pockmarks in crackers and pasta. While adult drugstore beetles do not eat, they often chew holes in plastic, foil, and paperboard food packaging. This is why it is important to look for holes in food packaging and avoid those products. They may also hitch a ride on packaged food.
In the garden, drugstore beetles are a major pest of cumin.ĭrugstore beetles are often carried into the home, garden, or landscape in bulk items, such as grass seed, bird seed, or dry pet food. Larvae are also commonly found in tea, potpourri, tobacco, wreaths, and birds’ nests and they have been known to damage books, leather, hair, and museum specimens. Apparently, paprika and chili powder are drugstore beetle favorites, though they will eat practically anything. They also leave frass (big poop) and webbing behind, as well as stray hairs and secretions.ĭrugstore beetle larvae love dried plant products, such as cereals, beans, pasta, rice, bread, flour, and spices. In less than two months, larvae pupate into adulthood, protected by tiny cocoons, and the cycle begins again.Īfter the eggs hatch, it is the larvae that cause damage by burrowing through and feeding on a wide variety of materials. This is an example of obligatory symbiosis. This fungi and the beetles cannot live without each other. Eggs may also be found in dried meat, hair, wool, and candy.Īs those eggs are laid, they are covered with a yeast fungus. Those eggs are usually laid in dried foods, such as cereals, dried fruit, grains, herbs, and nuts. That works out to a tremendous number of offspring. With suitable hygiene, and by preventing access into the attic by nest-builders, the successful eradication of this pest should be assured.Female drugstore beetles can lay up to 75 eggs at a time, and the egg-laying season can last for months. Beware also of bread in fire-places that has been dropped down the chimney by birds. These are likely to have come from nests of wasps or birds in the attic. Removing disused and old foodstuff should eliminate an infestation.Īdult beetles may be seen around fire-places and air vents with no apparent food-source available. Rarely-used dried-foods such as flour or spices are often the source of an infestation. Damage and controlīecause bread beetle larvae thrive in dark, warm, undisturbed places, it is essential to search thoroughly for the food-source of the larvae if adults are found wandering around.
Before emergence as an adult beetle, a minimum of nine days is spent as the pupa in an oval shaped cell that is moulded by the larva using the food material. The larva increases in size and, at about 5mm in length, it enters the pupal stage.
Biscuit beetles, also known as Drugstore Beetles, belong to the family Anobiidae, and are a type of stored product pest. In its search for food, it may bite into packaged or hidden food sources. by Claire Williamson Exotic Bugs & Insects 0 comments No, biscuit beetles and carpet beetles are not the same thing. When the larva emerges from the egg, it is less than 1mm in length. In cool temperatures (below 15✬) there is only one generation per year, in moderate temperatures two generations, while at higher temperatures (above 23✬) there may be five or more.Įggs are laid by mated females on or near the foodstuff. The speed of development through the life cycle depends on temperature, moisture, quality and abundance of food. In common with other beetles, this species passes through four life-stages: egg, larva, pupa and adult. It occurs in houses, stores, warehouses and kitchens throughout central and northern Europe, including the UK, sometimes in very large numbers. The biscuit beetle is common across the world.
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