The meal moth is a household pest whose caterpillars feed on flour, grain, cereal, and other dry foods. It is easy to recognize at rest, when it curls the tip of its abdomen up over its back. In the US it is found across the country but is most common along the East Coast, especially in the Northeast.
Appearance
- Appearance
- Wingspan is about 0.7–1.2 in (18–30 mm). The forewings have a reddish-brown base and tip, a pale tan center, and wavy white lines along the borders of the center.
Look-alikes
The Indianmeal moth is smaller (wingspan 0.6–0.8 in, 14–20 mm), and each forewing is split into two colors: cream to yellow near the body and coppery red to dark gray on the outer half. The meal moth has a pale center with a reddish base and tip, and rests with its abdomen tip curled up.
Why they get mixed upBoth are brownish moths that turn up in pantries and stored grain.
Where it lives
- Typical habitats
- homes and pantries
- grain storage
- flour mills
- Range
- Found nearly worldwide, carried along with stored food. In the US it occurs across the country but is most common along the East Coast, especially in the Northeast.
- Preferred conditions
- Prefers damp, moldy grain and meal. Finding many of these moths usually points to poor food storage or sanitation.
Behavior
- Diet
- Caterpillars eat wheat, barley, oats, corn, flour, peanuts, dried fruit, hay, and other stored products. They leave silk webbing, droppings, and shed skins behind, and in mills the webbing can clog machinery.
- Activity
- At rest it holds the tip of its abdomen bent up at about a right angle to the body.
Life cycle
- Reproduction
- Females scatter eggs through the food. A female lays about 235 eggs on average, and eggs hatch after about nine days. Mature caterpillars leave the food to spin a silken cocoon in a crack or crevice.
- Larva
- Caterpillars are whitish to dirty gray with a dark head and grow to about 1 in (25 mm). They live in tunnels of silk and meal inside their food.
- Lifespan
- The full life cycle takes about eight weeks, and up to four generations a year are possible. Adults live only about 9–10 days after mating.
Conservation
- IUCN Red List
- NENot EvaluatedNot yet assessed
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