Bookworm is a general name for any insect that is said to bore through books.
Fumigation is a method of pest control or the removal of harmful micro-organisms by completely filling an area with gaseous pesticides—or fumigants—to suffocate or poison the pests within. It is used to control pests in buildings, soil, grain, and produce. Fumigation is also used during the processing of goods for import or export to prevent the transfer of exotic organisms. Structural fumigation targets pests inside buildings, including pests that inhabit the physical structure itself, such as woodborers and drywood termites. Commodity fumigation, on the other hand, is also to be conducted inside a physical structure, such as a storage unit, but it aims to eliminate pests from infesting physical goods, usually food products, by killing pests within the container which will house them. Each fumigation lasts for a certain duration. This is because after spraying the pesticides, or fumigants, only the pests around are eradicated.
Dermestidae are a family of Coleoptera that are commonly referred to as skin beetles. Other common names include larder beetle, hide or leather beetles, carpet beetles, and khapra beetles. There are over 1,800 species described.
The varied carpet beetle is a 3 mm-long beetle belonging to the family Dermestidae. They are a common species, often considered a pest of domestic houses and, particularly, natural history museums, where the larvae may damage natural fibers and can damage carpets, furniture, clothing, and insect collections. A. verbasci was also the first insect to be shown to have an annual behavioral rhythm and to date remains a classic example of circannual cycles in animals.
The Indianmeal moth, also spelled Indian meal moth and Indian-meal moth, is a pyraloid moth of the family Pyralidae. Alternative common names are weevil moth, pantry moth, flour moth or grain moth. The almond moth and the raisin moth are commonly confused with the Indian-meal moth due to similar food sources and appearance. The species was named for feeding on Indian meal or cornmeal, and does not occur natively in India. It is also not to be confused with the Mediterranean flour moth, another common pest of stored grains.
The wheat weevil, also known as the grain weevil or granary weevil, is an insect that feeds on cereal grains, and is a common pest in many places. It can cause significant damage to harvested stored grains and may drastically decrease crop yields. The females lay many eggs and the larvae eat the inside of the grain kernels.
The khapra beetle, also called cabinet beetle, which originated in South Asia, is one of the world's most destructive pests of grain products and seeds. It is considered one of the 100 worst invasive species in the world. Infestations are difficult to control because of the insect's ability to survive without food for long periods, its preference for dry conditions and low-moisture food, and its resistance to many insecticides. There is a federal quarantine restricting the importation of rice into the U.S. from countries with known infestations of the beetle. Khapra beetle infestation can spoil otherwise valuable trade goods and threaten significant economic losses if introduced to a new area. Handling or consuming contaminated grain and seed products can lead to health issues such as skin irritation and gastrointestinal distress.
Cleridae are a family of beetles of the superfamily Cleroidea. They are commonly known as checkered beetles. The family Cleridae has a worldwide distribution, and a variety of habitats and feeding preferences.
The foreign grain beetle is a species of beetle in the family Silvanidae. It is related to the sawtoothed grain beetle.
Oryzaephilus mercator, the merchant grain beetle, is a small, flattened beetle about 2.5mm in length. It is a common, worldwide pest of grain and grain products as well as fruit, chocolate, drugs, and tobacco. The biology of O. mercator is nearly identical with Oryzaephilus surinamensis. It can be differentiated from O. surinamensis by its larger eyes and by the shape of the head, the area just behind the eyes of O. mercator is narrower than that of O. surinamensis, which has a more triangular shaped head. Unlike O. surinamensis, adults are capable of flight.
Home-stored product entomology is the study of insects which infest foodstuffs stored in the home. It deals with the prevention, detection and eradication of the pests. The five major categories of insects considered in this article are flour beetles, the drugstore beetle, the sawtoothed grain beetle, the Indianmeal moth and fruit flies.
Tenebroides mauritanicus, commonly known as the cadelle, is a cosmopolitan and common pest in storehouses and granaries. Adults and larvae feed on grain and grain products, prey upon other insects infesting grain, and bore into wood. They typically pupate in wood cavities that they make. It is one of the longest lived insects that attacks stored grain and is very destructive and easily dispersed. It is also one of the largest.
Aglossa cuprina, the grease moth, is a snout moth, family Pyralidae, described by Philipp Christoph Zeller in 1872. The grease moth is closely related to the genus Pyralis, and as a result, is usually associated with the meal moth, Pyralis farinalis.
Rhyzopertha is a monotypic genus of beetles in the family Bostrichidae, the false powderpost beetles. The sole species, Rhyzopertha dominica, is known commonly as the lesser grain borer, American wheat weevil, Australian wheat weevil, and stored grain borer. It is a beetle commonly found within store bought products and pest of stored cereal grains located worldwide. It is also a major pest of peanuts. The first documentation of wheat infestation by R. dominica was observed in Australia. R. dominica are usually reddish brown to dark brown in coloration, vary in sizes, elongated and cylindrical.
Silvanidae, "silvan flat bark beetles", is a family of beetles in the superfamily Cucujoidea, consisting of 68 described genera and about 500 described species. The family is represented on all continents except Antarctica, and is most diverse at both the generic and species levels in the Old World tropics.
The Angoumois grain moth is a species of the Gelechiidae moth family, commonly referred to as the "rice grain moth". It is most abundant in the temperate or tropical climates of India, China, South Africa, Indonesia, Malaysia, Japan, Egypt and Nigeria, with its location of origin being currently unknown. It is most commonly associated as a pest of field and stored cereal grains as they burrow within the kernel grains of crop plants, rendering them unusable for human consumption. By laying eggs between the grains themselves and hatching at a later time, often during the processing, transportation or storage stages, the moth can be transported to households or countries presently free of Angoumois grain moth infestations. Thus, constant protection against the Angoumois grain moth is required for grain up till the time of consumption.
The maize weevil, known in the United States as the greater rice weevil, is a species of beetle in the family Curculionidae. It can be found in numerous tropical areas around the world, and in the United States, and is a major pest of maize. This species attacks both standing crops and stored cereal products, including wheat, rice, sorghum, oats, barley, rye, buckwheat, peas, and cottonseed. The maize weevil also infests other types of stored, processed cereal products such as pasta, cassava, and various coarse, milled grains. It has even been known to attack fruit while in storage, such as apples.
A storage pest is an insect or other animal that damages or destroys stored food or other stored valuable organic matter. Insects are a large proportion of storage pests with each type of crop having specific insects that gravitate towards them such as the genus Tribolium that consists of insects such as Tribolium castaneum or Tribolium confusum which damage flour crops primarily.
Cephalonomia tarsalis is a idiobiont ectoparasitoid hymenopteran in the family Bethylidae. Known hosts include: Oryzaephilus surinamensis, Sitophilus granarius, Sitophilus oryzae, Sitophilus zeamais, and Tribolium castaneum.
Oryzaephilus acuminatus, is a species of silvan flat bark beetle native to India and Sri Lanka.
