SAWTOOTH GRAIN BEETLE

SAWTOOTH GRAIN BEETLE
Sawtooth Grain Beetle adults are very small and slender, usually under 1/8th inch, dark brown, with saw-like teeth on the prothorax. They feed on flour, bread, breakfast cereals, macaroni, and sugar--just about any dried food products, but any grain kernels have to have been already damaged by other pests. The larvae feed on the same material as the adults, and are pale colored. While they don’t consume much, their presence alone is enough to consider the products they infest unusable.

Life Cycle
The female can lay as many as 285 eggs during a 5-month period. Depending upon temperature, they hatch in 3-17 days. The larvae will go through about three molts, creating a pupal cell or cocoon. Adults can live from a few days to a few years, with the whole life cycle completed in 27-375 days.