Cigarette beetles were observed in a dog food product purchased by customers, many miles from the original processing plant. The dog food is heated to 350° F for two hours before placed into sealed bags. How could the beetles possibly have survived such heat?

They could not. Even the egg and pupae will die from the prolonged heat.

Without ever visiting the processing facility, it’s possible to set up a series of possibilities. Then, each hypothesis can be proven true or false depending upon what you find:

1 The raw materials brought into the processing plant are heavily infested, and some of the beetles fly over to the open bags before they are sealed.

2 Raw materials are stored for months, giving the beetles time to mature and then fly over to the open bags before they are sealed.

3 Sanitation is poor, allowing the beetles to thrive and fly onto an empty bag to be used for end product.

4 The product is stored at warm temperatures for many months, allowing beetles to find the product, breed in spillage and penetrate the bags.

5 The trucks used to ship product are infested with spilled product. The beetles enter a broken bag that is resealed once it reaches the store.

6 The product is stored too high in a warehouse, causing the bags to crush and break. The beetles then have no trouble entering the product.

7 The product is stored in a darkened room, but bright lights are directly overhead and adult beetles fly to the lights. Upon hitting the lights, they feign death and fall down on the product. They roll into the seams and are found when the consumer purchases the product.

8 The packing materials brought into the processing plant were infested when delivered.

9 The consumer brings the product home, opens the bag, uses a portion and then leaves the rest for several weeks, so beetles from within the house infest the open bag.

10 The vacuum cleaners in the processing plant are not emptied often enough. The beetles breed inside and fly to open bags before they are sealed.

11 The exterior grounds around the processing plant and/or warehouse are breeding sources for the beetles.

12 The interior walls, forklifts or other inaccessible voids are harboring breeding cigarette beetles. The beetles then fly over and infest product.
Sometimes between shifts of employees and/or breaks, open bags of product may remain on the line after they are dumped into bags. You only need a few seconds for some beetles to enter product.

A thorough inspection of suspect areas, as well as reading insect light traps and cigarette beetle pheromone traps, will shed light on the true answer. Just be careful with the pheromone traps. Don’t place them near open doors or windows, because they can pull beetles into the structure. PC