They cause severe damage to dry food and important belongings such as books, leather shoes, and paintings. However, larvae are known for being notorious pantry pests. In fact, you can safely touch them with your bare hands. No, they are completely harmless to people and pets. In most cases, they hitch a ride with food from manufacturers to the groceries, then to houses. These female adults fly in search of a suitable food source where they can lay eggs. Do Biscuit Beetles Have Wings?Īdult biscuit beetles have wings, and they can fly. They also deposit eggs in leather, hair, horn, wool, wooden objects, and museum specimens. This includes food materials such as bread, cookies, chocolates, flour, dry mixes, grains, and spices. Where Do Biscuit Beetles Lay Their Eggs?īiscuit beetles lay their eggs in almost any dry organic matter, which the larvae dig when they are about to pupate. But it can be at its optimal once the temperature reaches 85☏, with 60 to 90% relative humidity.
On average, development can happen if the temperature is 60 to 93☏. The life cycle of a biscuit beetle is completed within 2 to 7 months, which again will depend on the food source and temperature. Once they emerge as adults, biscuit beetles will fly and can live between 16 and 20 days. Their pupal stage can last for 12-18 days, which is the time when they are temporarily inactive inside a small cocoon in a food material. Biscuit beetle larvae pass through 4 to 6 larval stages, which usually last for 4 to 20 weeks. Females lay between 75 and 100 white eggs one by one within 6-20 days.Įggs hatch into larvae from 26 to 100 days, depending on the weather and availability of food. They pass through four life stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. Like other beetle species, biscuit beetles undergo complete metamorphosis. What Is the Life Cycle of a Biscuit Beetle? There is no official record stating where biscuit beetles come from, but their damage pattern has been observed during the restoration of oil paintings, which were dated back to the 17th century.
Where Do Biscuit Beetles Come From?īiscuit beetles are cosmopolitan pests, which means they are widely from around the world, especially in warmer regions. Larvae also don’t eat wood, but they can bore holes through it to hide and pupate. In fact, the only material biscuit beetles don’t eat is metal or cast iron. They eat a very wide variety of food and non-food materials. What Do Biscuit Beetles Feed On?Ĭontrary to what some people think, biscuit beetles are not only pests of biscuits and pharmaceutical drugs. They have short hair and a dark marking on their head also ends in a straight line instead of having a convex boundary. Biscuit beetles also have loose, 3-segmented club antennae, while cigarette beetles have serrated (sawtooth-like) antennae.īiscuit beetle larvae have creamy white C-shaped bodies that are about 3/16 inch long. However, the latter have a round, oval body, and their wing covers have no distinct grooves. Since their head is not seen from above, they appear to be humpbacks.īiscuit beetles look like cigarette beetles, which are their close relatives. They are covered with fine silky dense hairs, while their wing covers have distinct grooves. How Do I Get Rid of Biscuit Beetles Naturally?īiscuit beetles ( Stegobium paniceum) are 1/10 to 1/7 inch long and have a light brown to the red-brown cylindrical body.Do Biscuit Beetles Go Away on Their Own?.Where Do Biscuit Beetles Lay Their Eggs?.
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