Confused Flour Beetle – Common Pantry Pest
Pantry Beetle and Oat
This is species of “Flour Beetle” our best guess is a “confused flour beetle”. These beetles will infest flour (as their name suggest), cereal products, and pet foods. If disturbed these small beetles quickly run for cover. In order for them to feed on grains, the grain must be damaged, cracked, or processed. It is not out of the ordinary for these particular beetles to follow in behind other beetles, such as rice weevils or lesser grain borers, that have the ability to cause damage to the grains and making them edible for the Confused Flour Beetle. Generally these beetles should not be feared as life threatening insects. Flour Beetles only potential threat to human life would be extreme cases of allergy, and if you feel that your health is at risk, then you should speak to your physician. Mainly the pantry beetle is just a nuisance pantry pest that will damage food. Good news is that they don’t eat much.
Confused Flour Beetle and Oat
For a pest control solution to this pantry beetle, finding the source of the problem is the first step. The food product carrying the infestation needs to be identified. The next step is easy… remove it. Removing the food or foods the flour beetles are infesting is the most important step in controlling your unwanted pantry pest. There will still be a few confused flour beetles left behind when their source is identified and thrown out. The surviving pantry beetles need to be controlled. If you fail to control them then a reinfestation of new stored products will likely occur. Step 3 then is to remove all the food from the shelves and pantry. If any shelf paper is being used then remove all paper as well and discard the paper. At this point you are ready to apply a pest product or home remedy to control your pantry beetles. Select a product you are comfortable with and that is labeled for pantry use or food preparation areas. Once a treatment is done wait till it is dry before replacing any food. 
Depending on how bad the infestation is the controlling these should unwanted pantry beetles should be fairly easy. In fact, light infestations are typically quickly resolved by simply removing and throwing out the infested foods.
Recent Comments