Confused flour beetle: Tribolium confusum , Host range: Broken grains/ mechanically damaged grains, germ portion and milled products. Heavy infestation causes stinking odour in flour, adversely affecting the dough quality. It is an important pest for mill machinery.

Symptoms of damage

• Grubs feed on milled products.
• Flour beetles are secondary pests of all grains and primary pests of flour and other milled products.
• In grains, embryo or germ portion is preferred.
• They construct tunnels as they move through flour and other granular food products.
• In addition they release gaseous quinines to the medium, which may produce a readily identifiable acid odour in heavy infestations.

Identification of the pest