Bread beetle grinder: unpretentious pest of provisions

What does a bread grinder look like: photo

Description of the beetle

Name: bread grinder
Latin: Stegobium paniceum

Class: Insects - Insecta
Squad: Coleoptera - Coleoptera
Family: Grinders – Stegobium

	Habitats:	almost everywhere around people
	Dangerous for:	food stocks, provisions
	Means of destruction:	cleaning, fumigation

"Hairy" grinder.

The body of the bug has an oblong shape with rounded edges, and the color can vary from light brown to brown, with a reddish tint. The length of an adult insect usually does not exceed 1,7-3,8 mm.

The entire surface of the body of the bread grinder is densely covered with short, brown hairs. Sexual dimorphism of females and males is practically not expressed, and their only external difference is a slight superiority of males in size.

Bread grinder development cycle

In residential areas, these harmful bugs successfully live and breed all year round, but in their natural environment they are found only in the first half of summer.

The fecundity of one adult female can reach 60-80 eggs, which she lays directly in containers with cereals, biscuits, dried fruits or other suitable products.

After 10-15 days, larvae appear, which immediately begin to destroy food supplies.

Grinder larva.

Depending on the temperature conditions, a bread grinder can spend from 1 to 5 months in the larval stage. All this time the larva feeds, grows and passes through 4-5 molts. After the larva has stocked up with a sufficient amount of nutrients, it pupates.

The appearance of the imago from the pupa occurs approximately on the 12-18th day. An emerging adult bread grinder can live from two weeks to two months, depending on external conditions.

The full development cycle of insects of this species takes from 70 to 200 days.

Bread Grinder Habitat

Initially, this species of beetles lived exclusively within the Palearctic, but over time it spread and adapted to life almost everywhere. The bread grinder can be found even in the harsh climate of the northern latitudes, where insects settled next to people. The favorite habitats of grinders were and remain:

What harm can a bread grinder cause

Grinder larvae are not at all picky in food and can destroy stocks of a wide variety of products. Most often, people find these bugs among such provisions:

How to get rid of bread grinders

To completely get rid of bread grinders, you need to make a lot of effort. Only an integrated approach and the following actions will help to cope with the pest:

1. All products infected with the pest should be thrown into the trash, and the containers in which they were stored should be soaked in soapy water and rinsed thoroughly.
   

   Bread grinder in stock.

2. All surfaces must be treated with a liquid insecticide or one of the disinfectant folk remedies.
3. Eliminate all cracks in the floor and walls.
4. Always use mosquito nets on windows during the summer.
5. All products purchased after processing should be stored exclusively in glass or plastic containers with a tight-fitting lid.

Conclusion

Despite the tiny size of grinders, they are very dangerous creatures. Every year, these bugs destroy a huge amount of food stocks, and they do this not only in the private possessions of people, but also in huge industrial warehouses. Therefore, the appearance of these insects signals that it is necessary to immediately begin to fight them and use all available methods for this.