Pests of foodstuffs

Abstract

A variety of different insects preys upon domestic food stores. For convenience, they can be grouped together as ‘larder pests’, but they are rather a motley assembly with varying degrees of dependence on human food. Two rather different kinds of pest are included. The first group, which may be described as ‘visitors’, live in various harbourages in the structure of buildings (or even in the ground outside) and make journeys to visit the food stores. Cockroaches, ants, crickets and bristletails belong to this class. The second type of domestic food pests will be called the ‘residents’ because they live and breed in the stored food. These include certain beetles, moths and a number of mites.