Sawtoothed grain beetle
The sawtoothed grain beetle is a tiny, slim, dark brown beetle. On each side of its neck shield it has a row of little points, like the teeth of a saw. It likes to live in kitchen cupboards and grain stores.
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Fun facts
It cannot fly. It walks from food to food instead.
A grown-up beetle usually lives 6 to 10 months, but it can live as long as 3 years.
The grub builds itself a little cocoon from crumbs of grain.
Freezing food for six days kills the beetles, their eggs and their grubs.
Some people think the malt in the old rhyme The House That Jack Built may have been this beetle.
Most asked questions about Sawtoothed grain beetle
?Why are there tiny brown beetles in my cereal?
They may be sawtoothed grain beetles. Keeping dry food in tightly closed boxes keeps them out.
?Does the sawtoothed grain beetle bite?
Almost never. If there are very many, they can nibble skin, but the bites are harmless.
?How big is the sawtoothed grain beetle?
Only about 2.4 to 3 millimetres long.
For bug experts
- Scientific name
- Oryzaephilus surinamensis
- Named by
- Linnaeus
- Group
- Beetles
- Family
- Silvanidae
- Classification
- Insecta > Coleoptera > Silvanidae
- Lives on
- Europe, Asia, Africa, North America, South America, Australia and Oceania
- Also known as
- Malt beetle
Where the facts come from
- Oryzaephilus surinamensis (Wikipedia, CC BY-SA 4.0): what it looks like, where it lives, what it eats, sizes and fun facts, retold in simple words.
- Picture by Udo Schmidt from Deutschland. CC BY-SA 2.0, 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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