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Sticker of Maize weevil
Bug card No. 0873 of 1,500

Maize weevil

Sitophilus zeamais
Eats: PlantsBeetlesHouses and farms6 legs

The maize weevil is a tiny brown beetle with a long, thin snout and four reddish spots on its back. It sneaks into stored grain like corn, rice and wheat. Its babies grow up hidden inside a single grain.

Lives in
Warm, damp places all over the world, wherever corn and grain are grown and stored
Length
2.3 to 4.9 mm (0.09 to 0.19 in)
Top speed
about 0.09 km/h (0.06 mph)
On foot, estimate
Can it hurt you?
Harmless
Harmless to people. It just spoils stored food, so throw away grain that has weevils in it.
What does it eat?
It eats grain such as corn, wheat, rice and oats, and even pasta and stored apples. Each larva eats one grain from the inside.
For real!Photo of Maize weevil
Picture by This image was released by the Agricultural Research Service , the research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture , with the ID k3980-17 (next) . Public domain, via Wikimedia Commons.

How big is it?

How long is it?

Maize weevil about 4.9 mm long (0.19 in)A grain of rice about 6 mm (0.24 in)
small enough to sit on your fingernailcould run across a dinner table in 40 seconds

How big is Maize weevil compared to YOU?

Just maths in your browser. Nothing is saved or sent anywhere.

How fast is it?

cool stuff

Fun facts

1

The mother chews a hole in a grain, lays one egg inside and seals it with a waxy plug.

2

From egg to grown-up beetle takes only about 36 days.

3

One female can lay 300 to 400 eggs in her life.

4

It can fly at least 400 metres, and it flies most in the afternoon.

5

Weevils that grow up in corn become bigger than weevils that grow up in rice.

you asked

Most asked questions about Maize weevil

?Are maize weevils harmful?

Not to people. They do not bite, but they spoil stored grain, pasta and other food.

?How do maize weevils get into food?

The mother lays an egg inside a grain, and the baby grows up hidden there until it chews its way out.

?How big is a maize weevil?

It is only about 2 to 5 millimetres long.

For bug experts

Scientific name
Sitophilus zeamais
Group
Beetles
Family
Curculionidae
Classification
Insecta > Coleoptera > Curculionidae
Lives on
North America, South America, Europe, Asia, Africa, Australia and Oceania
Also known as
Greater rice weevil

Where the facts come from

  1. Maize weevil (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
  2. Picture by This image was released by the Agricultural Research Service , the research agency of the United States Department of Agriculture , with the ID k3980-17 (next) . Public domain, Wikimedia Commons. The round sticker of this bug is cut from the same picture.

If we got something wrong, sorry, we are bug fans, not a science journal. Tell us at [email protected] and we will fix it.

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