Barn mites: the secrets of a successful fight against small, but very voracious pests

The main types of ticks living in barns

In total, about 200 varieties of barn mites are known, differing in their habitat. These include:

Anatomy and lifestyle of grain pests

Barn mites have a translucent body of a white or reddish hue, inside which reserves of adipose tissue are visible. They do not have eyes or sense of touch. The head and thorax merge with the abdomen. These pests breathe through the entire surface of the body through spiracles, bite off and chew food with the help of jaws.

An adult has 8 pairs of legs. The life expectancy of ticks is longer in females - about 3 months in summer and 6 in winter.

During this period, she is able to lay up to two hundred eggs. Under adverse environmental conditions, an adult arthropod can turn into a hypopus covered with a hard protective shell, and with an improvement in the situation, again into a nymph.

Where are barn mites found

You can see the parasite in the premises where cheeses, wine and beer are produced and stored, in granaries, warehouses and home kitchens.  Ticks settle in the soil, moss, burrows and nests of animals, on mushrooms, plants and places of accumulation of rotting vegetables and cereals. They can live in haystacks and straw, in a field, a barnyard.

What harm do parasites cause?

Signs of the presence of mites in the granary

You can understand that ticks have got into the granary by the following manifestations:

• cereal raw materials exude an unpleasant musty smell and are characterized by high humidity;
• traces of damage are visible on the grain;
• with a strong infection, it seems as if waves run through the surface of the poured grain.

Pests enter warehouses and elevators from fields during harvesting.

Barn mites in homemade flour

Most often, in domestic conditions, the parasite chooses flour as its habitat, in which it is not so easy to detect it. The presence of a tick will indicate:

• change in the shade of flour to brownish-brown;
• mint smell;
• bumps, depressions, roughness and a thin crust on the surface of the product.

You can detect the pest using double-sided tape, which is stuck inside the cabinet with flour and cereals. With the dominance of parasites, several individuals will certainly stick to the tape in a couple of days.

Measures to combat barn mites in storage

To destroy arthropods in agriculture and the food industry, chemicals and certain equipment are used, trying to get rid of the parasite and prevent contamination of products with toxic substances at the same time. Sometimes a combined method is used, combining two or more methods of exposure.

Special Tools

Folk methods

An effective drug in the fight against parasites is vinegar diluted with water in a ratio of 1: 2. This liquid is applied to the internal surfaces cleaned of contaminants. You can put next to the flour and cereals products that repel ticks with a pungent odor, such as garlic or bay leaf.

How to get rid of barn mites at home

The war against the pest must begin with the disposal of contaminated products and the disinfection of cabinets and shelves on which they were stored. Containers from under flour and cereals should be thoroughly washed, poured over with boiling water and dried in the oven. Uncontaminated products are recommended to be put in the freezer for 7 days or calcined.

Preventive measures to protect supplies from ticks

To protect food from the granary parasite, they keep it clean, ventilate the room and maintain a temperature regime in the pantry that is uncomfortable for the pest. Bulk products are kept in jars with hermetically sealed lids, periodically warm up at a temperature above 60 degrees or sort out the grain, removing spoiled and unsuitable for further use specimens.