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Welcome again to the faith pest control podcast. Hey, I’m Mike Stewart, your host here. And today we’re with pest expert Fred Talley of faith, faith, pest control, pest control services, all the fine folks in Jasper, Georgia Blue Ridge, Georgia Ellijay, Georgia and pretty much anywhere in the north Georgia mountains where you have a pest problem. And if you have a pest problem, Fred is your man to take care of those problems. He’s been in the business for many, many years. He’s the expert who can make your home bug free if you’ll just call out and reach out to him and just ask him and take it he guarantees his work. So give him a call. So have you ever been in your pantry and looked in your canister of flour or sugar and seen little bitty bugs or something that looks like worms are we I know my wife has screamed a couple of times over the years finding that in the pantry. Well those are pantry bugs. Those are pantry paths. Fred, tell us about those pesky little bugs that can show up in your in your food.
The pantry pest is covers a large, wide variety of bugs but what we’re going to talk about today are specifically the weevils and weevils are actually small beetles, which they have a kind of a long narrow snout that’s visible. Many species A weevils can be agricultural as well as household pests. And they they’re found plants and crops or or in stored grains. They’re very small bugs, an eighth to a quarter of an inch long. With the long the long, slender, stout, the snout that sticks out in front of their head, which is I mean, even at a quarter inch long, the snouts is very visible to the to the naked eye. They’re their body’s kind of light bulb or pear shape. Some weevils have wings but not all of them do. But like all insects have six legs. In their antennae are folded somewhat. They’re usually reddish brown to black in color. And some hat do have various patterns or colorations on their wings. And again, you’ll most commonly find them in the garden and or fields because the adult is not what well, we’ll get into that we will surpass that feed on crops as well as roots of plants. But they may grow in cereal grains, like rice, rye, wheat, buckwheat, corn, oats, but they can also feed on things like beans, peas, nuts, wheat products, such as flour. They too can can feed on cotton actually. Strangely enough, they might also feed on some fruits like pears, grapes, apples, we will go through what’s called a complete metamorphosis. Now I’m not telling you this to to totally bore you with bug biology but that you kind of need to understand this to be able to know what you might be seeing in your in your pantry, a complete metamorphosis. bugs don’t grow and have birth like humans do. And then the complete metamorphosis means that the insect goes through four different stages to get from egg to maturity in the stages are they there an egg that they developed from an egg into a larva from a larva to pupa A and then into adult. Now this is going to be an important part to understand here. Female weevils will lay their eggs inside and all I want you to pay attention to the words inside a grain kernel, like a grain of rice, a kernel of corn, A, the the seed that would be inside of a vein inside a nut the they can also lay their eggs a female can also lay their eggs on plants, but we’re concerned with this podcast is is the eggs that are laid inside the grain kernel. She’ll lay small white lay eggs that are in clusters. And at maturity, the eggs will hatch and to weave a larva which will feed on the grain. This is an important part to understand that the eggs will hatch inside the grain kernel into a larva which will in turn feed on the contents of that grain. When they exit they We’ll make a hole in that funnel that grain. As the larva grows inside the kernel it will mature into a pupa in the pupil forms a cocoon changes undergoes metamorphosis and within about a month, the wave will eat through the seed coat and emerge as an adult. This is important to remember in that the we will each through the seed coat as this, this process will leave a hole in that grain kernel. So you will see holes that don’t look they don’t look normal. You know, you’d say well, why why are the holes there? If that’s the only evidence you see, the adults will have a hard exoskeleton and most likely will fly they mate and lay eggs to begin the cycle all over again. The weevils lifespan can vary dependent on environmental factors such as temperature, humidity, the availability of food sources. Some some weevils only live for a few months but on average, their life cycle lasts about a year. There are many species like I said in of weevils, but in this podcast, what we’re primarily talking about are called rice weevils and granary. weevils. Rice weevils will infest stored grains. They’re kind of a reddish brown color and have four reddish or yellowish markings on their wings. The important thing to remember here is the the adult rice weevil is attracted to light and they can fly granular granary weevils resemble rice weevils in that they will infest stored grains and grain products however they can. They can be longer in body size than a rice weevil in our January reddish brown to black and color. granary weevils also had do not have markings on their wing covers as rice weevils do. They are not attracted to light as rice weevils are and they cannot fly as rice weevils can. North Georgia is not unique and its problems with weevils. weevils are found worldwide. It’s very common to see them in your garden. They often will crawl into your home through cracks, crevices and openings in around doors and windows your home. They normally come inside looking for shelter. In very hot dry weather conditions they prefer. They like warm weather, but they don’t like hot weather and they prefer prefer moist places but not dry. Sometimes you’ll find them in your sinks and bathtubs. Occasionally, I don’t see it very often but it does happen. A weevil infestation may occur in your pantry if you bring in foods that may already already be infested in your home. My experience is that most of the grand new granary weevils and rice weevils that we deal with are brought into the home, they don’t come into the home on their own under their own power. It’s actually fairly easy to detect a weevil infestation as the the infested grey may have a white kind of like a solid us like appearance due to the weevil droppings and also grain and grain products damaged by weevils will have holes in them like we were discussing about when the toupee develops emerges from the the the the carnal. weevils are attracted to again warm, moist environments and they emerge typically in the late spring. In the hot dry months of summer, they will seek out shelter in places suitable for reproduction and lay their legs they’re there. If they happen to enter your home they may become attracted to grains and grain products there and possibly infest them but I really haven’t found that to be the what happens. We wills are not harmful to humans, they don’t carry disease. They don’t sting you they won’t bite you. They’re primarily a nuisance pest but they can also cause damage to your store food products. You know if weevils infested garden or field they can damage the plant and reduce the yield of crops. Otherwise they’re harmless in generally go away on their own out in the field to to control rice or granny granary weevils. The best method is just to destroy or dispose of the infested grain. Keep the uninfested food in sealed airtight containers then you may also store the food in the refrigerator or freezer to keep it fresh. Freezing Oh, the uninvested grain at zero degrees Fahrenheit for three days can prevent weevil growth. as sick as it sounds the in our country we can have a certain level of impurities in our food and those impurities can be these can be these waves weevils. Typically, insecticides or pesticides are not a big benefit if Wheedle weevils are already infesting your stored grains or food products, unless the problem is originating from the exterior, and the weevils are getting inside. Like I said before, I personally never encountered a problem with weevils coming in from the outside, on their own of their own power. But they’re generally brought in in grains purchase at the grocery store.
I’m very well aware the process of going through all your everything in your pantry to define what is infested. But in reality, that is the solution, you’re first time or two through the pantry 90% of the time, you’re probably going to miss an infested product. But if you continue to have a weevil problem, go through your pantry or cupboard again 100% of the time that I’ve ever had a customer call me and say they’ve thoroughly gone through their pantry, totally gotten rid of all their infested food products, but they’re still having a problem. I go to their house, I go through their pantry pretty meticulously, and I’ll find something that’s still infested, it can be stocked with crackers, you need to look at everything in your pantry and be very thorough in the process. It fates pest control, we offer a free consultation, and a 100% money back make you happy guarantee. You hire faith pest control to get rid of your bug problem. And at the end of 30 days, you’re not 100% Satisfied, we’ll come back and retreat your home for free. And we’ll keep on trading it for free until you tell us that you are happy. That still doesn’t make you happy. We’ll give you back every penny spent on the original treatment. Plus, we’ll pay you an additional $25 for your time in trouble just for fooling with us. The bottom line is this. I want you to be happy with the service that we provide, or you won’t pay us a penny period. Do you feel like what I have said makes sense. Please call fate pest control today is 770-823-9202 and asked to speak to me Fred Talley. I’ll be more than happy to speak with you and answer any questions that you may have.
Or Fred informative as always, thank you so much for being the pest expert of North Georgia. And more importantly, folks, we do this as a customer service. This podcast is to educate you on pest problems and to know what to do. Sometimes it means calling Fred sometimes it’s just taking precautions yourself. But either way, we want you to have a pest free home. Tell folks about this subscribe, share this podcast with your friends ran apple. We’re in Google. We’re in pot, Spotify, we’re in Amazon, and we’re online at Faith pest control.com So until next time, we’ll see you on the faith pest control podcast.
