Most of stored product insects belong to Lepidoptera and Coleoptera. Among the common characteristics of these insects are their ability to be transported by board ships, trucks, train wagons and all food storages without noticing.

Stored product insects are mainly omnivorous and infest a variety of food products such as grains, legumes, nuts, dried fruits (peanuts, almonds, raisins), feed, etc.

How stored product insects are treated

As prevention is always better than treatment, it is believed that the tactical pest control and monitoring by using pheromones, can be considered as the most effective treatment. The pheromone traps are often used to catch insects ensuring their presence detection, population growth monitoring and timely measurements implementation.

In case that population density exceeds the tolerance level, then fumigation method is applied to kill insects of all development stages (egg, larva, pupa, adult).
The most common stored product insects are:

• Plodia interpunctella – common warehouse worm
• Lasioderma serricorne- tobacco beetle
• Rhizopertha dominica- rice beetle
• Oryzaephilus surinamensis- wheat lice
• Tribolium castaneum- dark flour beetle
• Sitophilus granaries- wheat beetle
• Ephestia kuehniella- flour worm
• Sitophilus oryzae- rice beetle
• Acanthoscelides obtectus- bean loop