There were bugs in the croup. Such news will spoil the mood of any housewife, because the very fact of the presence of any organisms in products intended for consumption is unpleasant. And the troubles associated with getting rid of uninvited guests will strengthen the negative effect of this news.
Who is a bread grinder?
Bread grinder - a small light brown (less often red-rusty) beetle, a resident of enclosed spaces, which is also a dangerous pest of food supplies. Moreover, damage is caused by both adult specimens, making through holes in products, and larvae.
Indiscriminate in food, they eat or spoil everything that comes in the way. The grown individuals are especially unpleasant and dangerous. If adult pest beetles do not feed, but exist due to the accumulated fat reserves in the larval stage, then “youngsters” can easily penetrate into food substrates, make moves in them and fill them with waste products.
Description of the pest of kitchen stocks
Drugstore beetle (from the English - “pharmacy beetle”) is characterized by small size (up to 4 mm) and an elongated convex body covered with soft hair. The small head of the winged insect is submerged in the deepening of the pronotum.
The chest is convex, deep grooves are clearly visible on the elytra. Antennae serrate, short, with three elongated and expanded terminal segments. The full life cycle of a bread grinder lasts about 200 days, depending on air temperature and food quality. The bread grinder is resistant to low temperatures. At a temperature of +4 ... +5 ° C, the embryo in the egg is able to maintain viability for about 4 months. Under natural conditions, a massive accumulation of beetles is observed in June-July, in the room, pest beetles live constantly and are able to give one or two generations of young animals per year.
Features of existence
Female productivity is from 20 to 60 oval milk-white eggs. The insect lays them in products, which will subsequently become the object of food for newborns. The larvae of the bread grinder are characterized by a dirty white color, small size (about 5 mm in length) and short spikes on the back. They are very similar to the larvae of the horsetail, have an arched curved fleshy body, well-developed upper jaws covered with teeth.
The general development cycle depends on the temperature regime: at +17 ° C it is about 17 days; with an increase of 10 ° C, it halves. She prefers to take a dip in kitchen supplies, building a cocoon around herself from grocery microparticles or gnawing cradle grains in her grains. Pupa is yellow-white, 2.5-4 mm long.
Bugs in flour and cereal: what to do?
For a year, the beetle grinder is able to give one or two generations; in heated rooms, fertility is higher - up to five generations. The visual order in the cabinets is not an indication that there are no pests in them. With a weak infection of products, the vital activity of insects usually proceeds unnoticed, inside the food substrate.
With a high population density, bugs in flour and cereal are forced to crawl out in search of new habitats, so they can easily be found on the surface of contaminated food. A bread grinder can get inside the premises with purchases, in bags with cereals and flour, or through cracks in the frames and window panes. If there are bugs in the croup, what should I do? How to get rid of unsolicited pests once and for all?
The bread grinder flies well; in the evening, like butterflies, gathers in flocks near a light source. In apartments, they can often be found on window sills.
When you touch it, it freezes, pretending to be dead, or makes very unpleasant sounds.
Malicious activity of the grinder beetle
A bread grinder can spoil almost all products: flour, bread, cereals, crackers, tea, pasta. It does not disdain herbariums and dried herbs, even poisonous ones: belladonna, strychnine, ergot, aconite. A careful search for the grinder beetle can be found on bookshelves, where the larvae diligently destroy paper, turning it into fine dusty dust. In the library environment for such wrecking, the insect is called the "book bug". A kitchen resident can even climb into cigarettes. Wood is not an insect , so there is no need to worry about wooden floors, walls and furniture.
How to get rid of grinder bugs? Unlike a quick cockroach, rushing around the kitchen in search of edible, the bread grinder is a constant insect. Having found a suitable product, the bug firmly settles in it and begins to multiply actively. You can identify the pest by the spoiled appearance of the perforated products, the presence of dust and excrement in them. Well seen in the breeding center of the grinder larvae.
Bread grinder: how to get rid?
Pest control in the kitchen consists in the disposal of damaged stocks and the mechanical impact on insects: fishing and destruction. Insecticide treatment is pointless to use, since poisons will certainly get on the products. And their use, even after heat treatment, is very dangerous to health. Therefore, heavily infected cereals, flour, tea and other damaged products should be discarded, the shelves of the cabinets thoroughly wiped using vinegar, soda and bleach.
If the bugs were found in jars, then the glass containers must be soaked in water with a good portion of soap, leave for some time, then rinse and dry thoroughly. Holes in wooden elements where pests can move are recommended to be sealed with sealant. With a high number of beetles, sodium tetrabonate (borax), sold in any pharmacy, can be scattered on the shelves of cabinets.
With a low degree of infection, cereals can be sieved and heated in the oven at a temperature of +70 ° C for an hour. Or a day stand the products in a refrigerator, then fry in a pan for 10-15 minutes. It is recommended to fill in infected peas or beans with hot water: beetles and larvae will float to the surface. Then the dried and sorted products must be dried on a clean cotton cloth.
Folk methods
In order to prevent the spread of a bread grinder in the kitchen, it is required to maintain perfect cleanliness, examine the acquired cereals and flour for the presence of a bug. For storage use glass hermetically twisted containers.
Products that are in paper, plastic or cloth bags are more likely to become infected with a bread grinder, since it will not be difficult for an insect to gnaw such material. As a protective measure, a cloth bag is recommended to be treated with concentrated saline.
You can scare away the pest with ordinary garlic, a few unpeeled slices of which it is recommended to put in flour. In containers with cereals, it is advisable to place gauze bags filled with salt or a bay leaf, the smell of which insects simply can’t tolerate. Periodically wipe the shelves of the cabinets with water and vinegar. It is advisable to store dried fruits, bread and nuts in the refrigerator. You should not buy cereals for future use, creating significant reserves - an excellent environment for the life of the larvae of a grain grinder.
Fighting the grinder outside the kitchen
Outside the kitchen, more effective measures can be used against the grinder: for cabinets with damaged books - aerosol treatment with insecticides. Sprays such as Raptor, Raid, and Combat will show high results. To prevent the beetle from entering its territory on shelves of lockers, in herbariums and collections, it is recommended to lay out bags with lavender and nutmeg. Smells of such insect repellents.
The appearance of harmful bugs in the kitchen, and especially in food supplies, is unpleasant for any housewife, especially if the room is kept in order and clean. You can get rid of a bread grinder only by cleaning, heating and freezing cereals. Insecticides are extremely dangerous to use, as this poses a direct threat to the residents of the house.