How Do You Identify The Sex Of Cigarette Beetles?
• Start young. Although it is possible to sex these beetles as adults, it is much easier at the pupa stage. Adult cigarette beetles live 2 to 4 weeks. Adult females lay as many as 100 eggs singly on food materials. The eggs are white and oval-shaped and hatch in 6 to 10 days. After hatching, the larvae tunnel through the food material, causing destruction of the grain and contamination. They become fully grown in 30 to 50 days and enter the pupal stage, which lasts 8 to 10 days or more, depending on the temperature. Pupae are covered by a silken cocoon and bits of their food material. Use mason jars with whole wheat flour and 15 grams of brewers yeast. • Get to those cocoons with the pupae inside. To do this, use a #20 sieve and pour the flour/brewers yeast mix through the sieve. It takes some guess work to find a jar with the cocoons, so be patient. • Get a paint brush and a needle type instrument. Hold down the cocoon with the paint brush and carefully make an incision in the cocoon
