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The wheat weevil (Sitophilus granarius), also known as the grain weevil or granary weevil, is an insect that feeds on cereal grains, and is a common pest in many places. It can cause significant damage to harvested stored grains and may drastically decrease crop yields. The females lay many eggs and the larvae eat the inside of the grain kernels.
The grain or wheat weevil (Sitophilus granarius) damages stored grain, as does the maize weevil (Sitophilus zeamais), among others. The boll weevil (Anthonomus grandis) attacks cotton crops; it lays its eggs inside cotton bolls and the larvae eat their way out. Other weevils are used for biological control of invasive plants.
It then pupates within the grain kernel and emerges 2–4 days after eclosion. Male S. oryzae produce an aggregation pheromone called sitophilure ((4S,5R)-5-Hydroxy-4-methylheptan-3-one) to which males and females are drawn. A synthetic version is available which attracts rice weevils, maize weevils and grain weevils.
Weevils also are known to infest oats, rice, corn, corn meal, sorghum, and cereal, so you might want to apply the same practice you do to your flour as those items as well.
The adult female weevil bores a hole in a grain, nut, or seed, and deposits an egg, usually one egg per individual grain. She seals the hole with a secretion. The larva develops while feeding on the interior of the grain, and then pupates. It usually leaves the grain completely hollow when it exits as an adult. [6]
The maize weevil (Sitophilus zeamais), known in the United States as the greater rice weevil, [1] [2] is a species of beetle in the family Curculionidae. It can be found in numerous tropical areas around the world, and in the United States, and is a major pest of maize . [ 3 ]
The adult rice weevil has an orange-black exoskeleton and lays up to 450 eggs in pores of the damaged grains with each hatched egg further damaging the grain from the inside. Similarly to the lesser grain borer, maturation also happens inside the grain with the matured adult rice weevil eating through the husk of the grain to get out.
Oryzaephilus mercator, the merchant grain beetle, is a small, flattened beetle about 2.5mm in length. [1] It is a common, worldwide pest of grain and grain products as well as fruit, chocolate, drugs, and tobacco. [1] The biology of O. mercator is nearly identical with Oryzaephilus surinamensis (the sawtooth grain beetle). [1]