Bugs from dog food now in house – what are they? How to eradicate?

February 17, 2019 1:10 AM

A few weeks ago, these little guys popped out of a bag of imported dog food in larval form – they kind of looked like these at the time, but without the coloration on the head or tail. They can't be much more than a centimeter long. What could they be and how can I destroy them?

The larvae above are pantry moths, which these clearly aren't. You can see the overall body plan pretty well on the left side of the sadly blurry image – they fly a bit, so getting one in a plastic bag was my best shot at a close-up before the post-mortem. I can see two major segments, prominent antennae, and wings. They're black with a distinct green iridescence at the right angle. The closest images that I could find are here, though they're likewise blurry.

All I really know about their diet is that they like kibble – we're going through all sorts of sealed grains now, so I imagine that if they like anything else that they'll be effectively starved out soon, but they travel far and fast and any battle tips would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks in advance, hive mind!

posted by a series of tube socks to Home & Garden (5 answers total)

Do they have a kind of snout? I'm guessing you've got weevils. They like dog food. Does this article sound like your infestation?
posted by frumiousb at 1:55 AM on February 17, 2019

Weevils. Normally you'd dispose of anything that's infested, then keep all dry foodstuffs sealed up properly and keep on top of the vacuuming. Like ants, they'll stick around as long as there's something readily available to eat.
posted by pipeski at 2:48 AM on February 17, 2019 [1 favorite]

Weevils usually have a "nose" on them; those look like pretty much a lot of little generic beetles, like a dermestid. As others have said, they're just 'gross' to have around and disappear when they run out of food, but if they're not a grain-focused beetle (if they came from a meat-based dogfood maybe they are more of a dermestid?) you may want to check more than just the rice and cereal, you don't 100% know what they eat yet.
posted by AzraelBrown at 4:43 AM on February 17, 2019

There are a whole range of insects that invade our kitchens; fortunately the treatment is pretty much the same: get rid of their food source. A good article on ID and control is here.
posted by TedW at 5:42 AM on February 17, 2019

When you bring in new stuff, put it in the freezer for a week. (I'm so paranoid I store the hamster food in the freezer permanently now, and my birds are no longer on seed, but pellets.) YMMV with the size of the dog food and the size of your freezer, but it may be worth buying smaller bags more often to do this.
posted by fiercecupcake at 8:04 AM on February 18, 2019