Stored Product Pests

Adult warehouse beetles are oval in shape, 1.8 to 3.0 mm long. They are light to dark brown in colour and covered with fine hairs. The elytra have various pale markings according to the species concerned.

Saw-toothed grain bettles are small, slender, flattened, brown beetles, 3 to 3.5 mm long. They are easily distinguished by the 6 saw-like "teeth" on each side of the thorax.

Adult rice weevils are 2.5 – 3.5 mm long, somewhat smaller than granary weevil. It is reddish brown, with 4 faint reddish or yellowish spots on the elytra, round or irregularly shaped punctures on the pronotum and with the typical long, slender snout at the front of the head

Adult lesser grain borers are about 3 mm long, polished reddish brown or black and the head and thorax have a pitted appearance. Rhyzopertha dominica is almost cylindrical and the head cannot be seen from above. Although small, this insect has powerful jaws with which it can bore directly into wood and paper.

Adult indian meal moths have a wingspread of about 20 mm. The wings are bi-coloured cream and the outer portion of the forewing is reddish brown, with a coppery lustre. The adults are often seen flying about in the home and have often been mistaken for clothes moths but the wing colour is very distinct from the uniform grey of the clothes moth's wings

Flour bettles are small, reddish-brown beetles, 2.6 to 4.4mm in length. Flour beetles are extremely common stored product pests and are found in household pantries and commercial food manufacturers and distributors. They are pests of dried material of plant and animal origin but especially stored grains and grain products, peas, beans, shelled nuts, dried fruits, spices, chocolate, cayenne pepper and other materials

Adult drugstore beetles are oval and globular in shape and 3.0 to 4.0 mm long. The colour is uniformly reddish to reddish brown. Very fine hairs are arranged in longitudinal rows on the elytra. The drugstore beetle can be distinguished from the cigarette beetle by the distinctly striate elytra, the 3 enlarged segments at the tips of the antennae and by the less hairy larva.

Adult cigarette beetles are light brown, small, oval and about 3 mm long. The head and prothorax are bent downward so as to give the insect a strongly humped appearance. It has occasionally been confused with the drugstore beetle (Stegobium paniceum) but L. serricorne has serrate antennae and smooth elytra, whereas in S. paniceum the last 3 antennal segments are long and broad, forming a distinct "club” and the elytra are striate.