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Khapra beetle
What is it?
Khapra beetle (Trogoderma granarium) is one of the world’s worst stored product pests. Adult beetles are brownish and 2-3 millimetres long. Immature larvae are up to 5 mm long and are covered in dense, reddish-brown hair.
Where is it found?
Khapra beetle originated in India and has become established in a number of Mediterranean, Middle Eastern, Asian and African countries. It has been accidentally introduced and subsequently successfully eradicated in the United States at huge cost.
The beetle prefers hot, dry conditions and is often found in grain and food stores, in malthouses, seed processing plants, fodder production plants, dried milk factories, stores of packing materials (used or unused sacks, bags, crates) and kitchen pantries.
What are its effects?
Adult female khapra beetles lay from 50 to more than a hundred eggs at a time, and there can be up to nine generations a year.
The beetle is particularly hard to control because larvae can survive without food for several years and spend most of their time in crevices and other shelters, making them difficult to spot and hard to control with chemical treatments (fumigation is the only reliable treatment currently available).
The larvae are voracious feeders on grains and seeds as well as processed vegetable and animal products including spices, herbs, nuts and dried fruits.
What’s the risk to Australia?
Khapra beetles are easily transported with agricultural products in shipping containers, vessels or vehicles, even in shipments of canned products, rubber and clothing. Their ability to survive without food enables them to be carried around the world. Cargo and products from countries with khapra beetle require careful inspection by Quarantine officers.
Australia provides an ideal environment for this pest, and its establishment here would make grain exports considerably more expensive because many countries require fumigation against khapra beetle. Domestic grain and high-risk products would also be more expensive because of to treatment costs — and accurate identification of khapra beetle would be very difficult because there are many almost identical species that are native to Australia.