How do cigarette beetles breed and multiply?
The cigarette beetle (Lasioderma serricorne) is a species belonging to Arthropoda, Mandibulata, Hexapoda, Insecta, Pterygota, Coleoptera, Bostrichoidea, Anobiidae. So how do cigarette beetles breed and multiply?
1. How cigarette beetles breed and multiply
The optimum conditions for the development of the cigarette beetle are a temperature of 30°C and a relative humidity of 70%. Under these optimum conditions, it takes about 24 days to complete its life cycle. Eggs are laid in gaps between tobacco leaves or in indentations of grain kernels, one egg at a time.
2. Living habits of the cigarette beetle
Adults are phototactic. Newly hatched larvae are relatively active, feeding on the leaf mesophyll and leaving the epidermis behind; the larvae prefer to hide in dark places or in stored materials to feed on or bore into tobacco stems, tobacco bundles and the like. Cigarette beetle larvae have 5—6 instars in total, occasionally 4 or 7 instars. They develop fastest, and after becoming mature they use secretions to bind food together, forming a tough white thin cocoon from debris in crevices, fixed to the surface of the host, in which they pupate; some can also pupate without making a cocoon. Natural enemies include the rice weevil pteromalid wasp (Anisopteromalus calandrae) and others.
3. Control methods for the cigarette beetle
1. Pay attention to cleanliness inside the warehouse; new and old grain should not be stored together. 2. In cold regions, the warehouse temperature can be lowered to -3°C for 7 days in winter, and most larvae will be frozen to death. 3. When tobacco leaves are put into storage, insect conditions must be strictly checked; those with insects should first be treated for pest control and then stored. 4. For tobacco leaves stored for about 2 years, use plastic film sealed storage and try to use them up as concentratedly as possible; when insect density is high, phosphine gas fumigation can be used for control. 5. Because this insect is phototactic, installing insect traps with lamps in the warehouse can not only kill the pests but also reduce contamination of stored tobacco by insect bodies.
The cigarette beetle has a wide diet and damages tobacco, tea, cereals, legumes, dried jujubes, oilseeds, animal and plant specimens, cocoa beans, leather, and rattan and bamboo products, among others, with tobacco commodities especially severely affected.