- Worldwide distribution. Rice, maize, sorghum, pearl millet, related grasses. Important pest, often with other storage insects.
- Damage starts at milky stage in field, continuing to final storage.
- Eggs laid into grains; larvae bore into grain, feed and, later, make "windows" for adult (moth) emergence. Adults are 6 mm long, grey, pale or yellowish-brown, with fringed wings.
- Spread as adults on the wing (strong flyers), or as larvae inside grain.
- Natural enemies: several predators and egg parasitoids (Trichogramma), but effectiveness uncertain.
- Cultural control: dry grain properly (12%); keep storage rooms and areas clean; spray bins, use new sacks; monitor lose grain in bins (top layers), and grain still on cobs (throughout); resistant varieties.
- Chemical control: consult full fact sheet; always check whether the product is for treating equipment, bins and buildings or for treating grain for human use and animal feed. READ THE INSTRUCTIONS.
Pacific Pests, Pathogens and Weeds - Online edition
Pacific Pests, Pathogens, Weeds & Pesticides
Rice grain moth (337)
Grain moth, Angoumois grain moth, rice grain moth
Sitotroga cerealella. It is a member of the Gelechiidae.
AUTHOR Grahame Jackson
1Information from Swaine G (1971) Agricultural Zoology in Fiji. Her Majesty's Stationery Office. London; and CABI (2012) Sitotroga cerealella (grain moth) Crop Protection Compendium (https://www.cabi.org/cpc/datasheet/50238); and Jacobs S, Calvin D (1990) Angoumois grain moth. Penn State Extension; and from Plant Pests of the Middle East. Sitotroga cerealella (Olivier) (http://www.agri.huji.ac.il/mepests/pest/Sitotroga_cerealella/); and Rickman J, Gummert M (undated) Pest management in styorage. IRRI. (http://www.knowledgebank.irri.org/search-results?gsquery=common+post+harvest+insects); and from Jackman J (2018) Angoumois grain moth. Extension Entomology. Texas A&M Forest Service. (https://extensionentomology.tamu.edu/insects/angoumois-grain-moth/). Photos 1&2 Clemson University - USDA Cooperative Extension Slide Series, Bugwood.org.
Produced with support from the Australian Centre for International Agricultural Research under project PC/2010/090: Strengthening integrated crop management research in the Pacific Islands in support of sustainable intensification of high-value crop production, implemented by the University of Queensland and the Secretariat of the Pacific Community.