Larder Beetles

Larder beetles naturally occur in bird’s nests, and many species have found intensive poultry houses to be an ideal substitute.  These are serious pests in industrial and domestic kitchens, particularly in and around food cupboards, cookers and refrigerators. Their occurrence in kitchens is usually associated with poor hygiene which allows them to breed on food scraps. The adult beetles fly and are attracted at night to illuminated windows, resulting in the development of new infestations in kitchens of flats and staff canteens.

In domestic situations integrated programmes of cleaning and spraying with a residual insecticide will control most infestations.  If empty bird's nest are considered to have been an infestation source they should be removed.