Yellow meal worms
YELLOW MEAL WORM
The rather large Yellow meal worm, are shiny black beetles, a half inch long, with well-developed wings, are accomplished fliers and are attracted to light. They are named for the larva, which are more than an inch long, hard-bodied and are bright yellow.
Seldom a pest in homes, they are, however, major pests in storage facilities, in dark, undisturbed locations. They feed on these forgotten residues, overwinter in the larval stage and emerge, in the spring, to begin feeding on the food they are infesting. The adults can lay up to 300 eggs and will live about three months. The entire life cycle takes a year.
Since the larvae will often crawl away from the egg site, infestations can continue in other years. Thorough clean up is absolutely required.
Stored food / pantry / product pests
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