Grain Weevils

The Grain Weevil May Make Itself at Home in Your Pantry

Grain weevils are a serious agricultural pest, but since they live in whole grains they are found more often in crop storage facilities than in your home. But that doesn’t mean they never invade a kitchen pantry; grain weevils like wheat, oats, rye, barley, rice and corn, so they sometimes enter with infected whole grain products.

These insects are tiny and hard to detect:

• Only .12 to .2 inches long
• Reddish-brown, elongated body
• Elongated snouts
• Equipped with vestigial wings, although they cannot fly
• Larvae are white with a tan head and humpbacked

Lightening the load

Females lay between 36 and 254 eggs at a time. They chew a hole in a grain kernel, place one egg inside and then seal the grain with a sticky secretion. The larvae feed on the inside of the grain, leaving it lighter. They bore a hole to the outside once they have emerged from the pupa stage.

It takes about 5 weeks in the summer for grain weevils to go from egg to adult, but it may take 20 weeks in cooler weather. Adults live up to 8 months.

Allergy symptoms

People who are exposed to the dust left behind after a grain weevil has devoured the inside of a grain may have symptoms of allergies or asthma. To prevent them from getting a hold in your home:

• Buy only small quantities of grain at a time and use it up quickly
• Store grains in metallic, glass or plastic containers with tightly covered lids
• Try freezing grains until you need to use them

Since these pests can be difficult to detect, give Brody Brothers a call. We have the tools and the experience that will get rid of grain weevils and other pantry pests, and we’ll share our tips on how you can avoid future problems.