Red Flour Beetle or Confused Flour Beetle

Natural Habitat

Found globally in pantries, warehouses, mills, and anywhere dry food products are stored.

Diet & Feeding

Strictly consume a wide range of stored dry food products, especially milled grain products such as flour, cereal, pasta, and pet food.

Behavior Patterns

Flour beetles are known for infesting stored food products. They are nocturnal and avoid light. Females lay eggs directly in food sources. The life cycle from egg to adult can take several weeks to months, depending on temperature and humidity. These beetles are highly resistant to desiccation.

Risks & Benefits

Potential Risks: Major pantry pests; they infest and contaminate food products, making them unfit for consumption due to their presence, excretions, and a pungent odor they release. They do not bite or transmit diseases to humans. Potential Benefits: In some ecological contexts, they play a role as decomposers of decaying plant matter, but their primary interaction with humans is as pests.

Identified on: 8/15/2025