Very small bug found in my dog’s food hopper.
December 26, 2009
Dear Daniel and Lisa,
I went to feed my dog a few days ago and found many very small bugs in the food as well as larval stages and empty pupa casings. The larval stage are about 1/4 in. long. The bugs are a little larger than the dot pattern on a paper towel. That is what I photographed it on so that you could see the colors better. I am in central Florida. I do not think that the bugs came with the food as much as got into the hopper later ,which is in stored in the garage.
Mike Healy
Central Florida

Ornate Cabinet Beetle

Hi Mike,
We believe this is an Ornate Cabinet Beetle, Trogoderma ornatum, a species that frequently infests stored food.  It is sometimes called a Warehouse Beetle and is a member of the family Dermestidae that includes many household pests including Carpet Beetles.  These beetles can do great damage to museum collections including insect collections.  BugGuide has some nice images, and the Terminex page has some good information, though we doubt that using their extermination services will help in ridding a home of Cabinet Beetles.

Daniel,
Thanks so much for getting back to me. I figured that it was some sort of beetle, judging by the hard body. I tossed the remaining food, washed the food hopper and thoroughly cleaned the area beneath it. hopefully that will keep them at bay, if not, I will have to find a different storage area for the food.
Have a happy new year and congratulations on the first step of the book.
Mike Healy

Please Identify
December 11, 2009
I have been finding this insect near my kitchen and eating area over the past couple of months. The insect is less than 0.5cm and the pictures are taken with an optical microscope to provide as much detail as possible. Please help in ID this insect.
AD
Jacksonville, Florida

Cigarette Beetle, we think

Dear AD,
While the detail of your photos is excellent, sadly, the best identifying features like antennae are not well depicted.  We believe these are Drugstore Beetles, Stegobium paniceum, we are not certain.  Bugguide has some excellent images of Drugstore Beetles, and the description:  “Adult: body cylindrical, uniformly brown to reddish-brown; each elytron with several longitudinal striations bearing short fine hairs; antennae with 3-segmented club (terminal 3 segments elongate and smooth, like “linked sausages”); pronotum widens posteriorly.“  Drugstore Beetles will infest stored foods.

Cigarette Beetle, we think

Eric Eaton makes a correction
Daniel:
You are correct about the images not showing the anatomical features needed to be conclusive, and the specimen looks like it has been partially squashed such that it looks flatter than it should and the elytra (wing covers) deformed a bit.  All that said, I would say these are “cigarette beetles,” Lasioderma serricorne.  They are nearly identical to drugstore beetles in their habits, infesting all kinds of dried organic matter.
Eric

Bugs finding their way inside my dry foods
September 4, 2009
Dear Bugman,
These are little (1 to 1.5 mm in length) black bugs that are beginning to appear everywhere in my apartment. Inside a box of oatmeal there were hundreds. Inside bags of rice, flour and sliced almonds, again, they appear. I’ve had to waste a lot of food recently because they keep finding their way overall.
In of the pictures attached, you see one that crawled inside a photo frame and died because he was trapped between the glass and the picture. Crazy.
I live in Dubai, UAE, and I suspect these are some sort of desert bug. Also, there is high humidity here, as we live in front of the sea.
Please advice: are these disease-carrying critters? How do I get rid of them?
You can see their size relative to the grains of rice on the pic attached.
Thank you!
Fran
Dubai, United Arab Emirates

Grain Beetles

Dear Fran,
You have Grain Beetles in the genus Oryzaephilus, either the Saw-Toothed Grain Beetle or the Merchant Grain Beetle.  In your case, we don’t believe exact species identification is an issue since both species have similar habits.  The Grain Beetles are lumped together with other stored food pests and are collectively called Pantry Beetles.  According to Charles Hogue in his book Insects of the Los Angeles Basin:  “Several species of small beetles are counterparts to the pantry moths in that they infest dried food products.  Though the larvae rarely consume an appreciable quantity of the food, their presence alone is sufficient to render it unpalatable.  Pantry beetles are likely to be found in all kinds of dry organic material used by people as food.  They may infest such common foods as dry breakfast cereal, rice, oats, wheat, peas, candy, spices, dried fruit, noodles, and spaghetti, nuts, pet food, and beans as well as materials not usually thought of as food, including tobacco, red pepper, drugs, herbs, and even certain types of upholstery stuffing.”  We would add dried mushrooms to Hogue’s relatively comprehensive list of foods.  Later Hogue writes:  “The appearance of these pests in a tightly sealed package of dried food is a source of wonder to housekeepers.  Entry is commonly by way of minute imperfections in the seal, but some species may bore through paper and cardboard containers to get at the contents.  In other cases, infestations occur when the foods are stored in bulk in railroad cars, warehouses, and at other stops along the processing line.”  This means you may have introduced your current infestation by purchasing food that was already infested.  Our best advice is to clear out your pantry in its entirety and begin anew.  Do not store dried foods for lengthy periods of time and use containers with tight seals.  Some species of Pantry Beetles, according to Hogue:  “act as intermediate hosts and vectors of the human tapeworms Hymenolepis nana and H. diminuta.  People acquire infections by ingesting beetles containing the larval (or cysticercoid) stages of the tapeworm, which will often remain viable in infested corn meal and wheat flour that is undercooked.”

Grain Beetle