Quick Tips to Control Flour Beetle Infestation

Posted: December 12, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Pest Control | Tags: , , , , , , | Leave a comment

If detected at early stages of infestation, flour beetles can be eliminated from your home through easy, convenient methods that do not require the use of chemical pesticides.

Detection & Control

  • Inspect all stored grain products in your pantry. This includes bags of rice, flour (especially wheat), corn meal, cereals, pasta, pet foods, and anything else that is a dry grain. Take a large scoopful from each opened container, carefully sift through the content and look for any flour beetles (here’s a guide on how to identify them).
  • If flour beetles are detected in any stored grain products, immediately throw that product out and clean/vacuum the surrounding areas. Be sure to check that adjacent products are also not infested and remind yourself to not buy that specific product or avoid similar products from the same store.
  • Keep your pantry dry. Flour beetles favor moist environments and moist grain products are ideal habitats for them.
  • When buying grain products, inspect them thoroughly to detect for any holes, cracks, openings in the packaging.
  • Seal close any opened grained product either by pouring them in Ziploc bags, air-tight containers, or use a binder clip to keep the bags closed tightly.

Traps & Sprays

  • Beetle traps (such as EcoSafe “Sticky” Bug Trap or Pro Pest Pantry Moths & Beetle Trap) are made of cardboard and lined on the inside with pheromone laced sticky strips. The pheromone attracts nearby flour beetles to the trap where they get stuck on the glue strip.
  • Recent study found that pheromone based traps work better when consistent airflow is present (Campbell 2012).
  • Traps are non-toxic, easy to use, and disposable. They work great in areas where you detect there may be the presence of a flour beetle population.
  • Spray cracks and crevices with insectides (such as Demon WP, PERMA-DUST, or Ultracide) that kill any hiding adult flour beetles.
  • Insecticide can be toxic so be sure to remove all food items, utensils, dishes from the vicinity before spraying. Also be sure to only spray in cracks and not over entire surfaces.
  • Remember: insecticides should only be used as a last resort. If possible, call a professional pest control company to deal with large infestations.

References:

Campbell, J.F. 2012. Attraction of Walking Tribolium castaneum Adults to Traps. J Stored Prod Res, 51:11-22.

http://www.epestsupply.com/red-confused-flour-beetles.php#.UMkBUoPoSsf

Click to access flourbee.pdf

Coevolution with parasites drive reproductive isolation

Posted: December 12, 2012 | Author: | Filed under: Evolution | Tags: , , , , , | Leave a comment

Reproductive isolation entails a set of mechanisms, behaviors, and physiological processes that prevent members of two different species from mating and producing fertile offspring (Barton 1986). Over time, these barriers block gene flow between populations and act as reproductive boundaries that leads to the evolution of new species. Reproductive isolation can evolve in species whose geographic distribution overlaps (sympatric speciation) or when species are subdivided into geographically isolated populations (allopatric speciation).

Credit: Pearson Education, Inc.

For species with populations isolated by geographical barriers, variation in host-parasite interactions can potentially lead to rapid host population divergence. Parasites might represent at least 50% of the known biodiversity and this ubiquity makes parasites a major force in shaping genetic diversity (Schmid-Hempel 2011). The co-evolution of hosts and parasites may contribute considerably to host population diversification and eventually speciation.

Berenos et al., from the Institute of Integrative Biology – Zurich, conducted a study to test whether the biotic interactions in host-parasite co-evolution can lead to reproductive isolation via local adaptation. The experiment paired five lines of our beloved red flour beetle (Tribolium castaneum) with their respective  microsporidia, Nosema whitei. After 17 generations of species host-parasite interactions between these five lines, virgin females and males from each line were selected to mate with others from each of the four different lines and within their respective lines.

Light microscopy of N. whitei

The research team found that mating pairs from different lines had, on average, 16% fewer offspring than pairs from the same respective line. The number of offspring from the mixed mating pair was significantly lower compared to the related mating pair.

Positive correlation between coevolution and reproductive isolation.

The findings of this study suggest a role for co-evolution with parasites in in host reproductive isolation. And because reproductive isolation is a decisive step towards speciation, parasites may also accelerate population differentiation and ultimately lead to speciation.

References:

Berenos, C., Schmid-Hepel, P., Wegner, K.M. 2012. Antagonistic Coevolution Accelerates the Evolution of Reproductive Isolation in Tribolium Castaneum. Am Soc Nat, 180(4): 520-528.

Barton N., Bengtsson B. O. 1986. The barrier to genetic exchange between hybridising populations. Heredity 57 (3): 357–376.

Schmid-Hempel, P. 2011. Evolutionary parasitology: the integrated study of infections, immunology, ecology and genetics. Oxford
University Press, Oxford.