What should I do if the grain crop becomes infested? Can I still eat it? How to prevent it? Why is it easy to infect insects in summer?

In the summer, a large number of grain crops in the family begin to grow insects and crawl everywhere, making people look alarmed. What if the grain crops become worms? Can I still eat it? How to prevent it? Why is it easy to infect insects in summer?

Common cereals in supermarkets include rice, millet, glutinous rice, red rice, black rice, corn, oats, buckwheat, flour and other varieties. Among the common cereals, rice and millet, as raw materials, can generally be cooked directly, while processed grains such as wheat, corn and oats need to be ground into flour or rolled into slices for consumption.

In general, grain products in supermarkets are mainly divided into packaging products and bulk products, in which packaging products are generally rarely infested during the shelf life due to pre-processing; grain pests occur mainly in bulk grains and packaged grains after opening bags.

Can you still eat when there are worms in cereal grains?

What if we find that the grain stored in our home has become infested with insects? Whether it can be eaten or not depends on the specific situation.

(2) generally speaking, the insects produced by cereals are harmless and can be eaten as long as they are not too serious. For example, rice elephants feed on rice and will not bite humans, so if there are not many insects, as long as they are "sifted" or washed clean, they can rest assured that they can be eaten, and there is no need to throw away all the worms in a bag of rice, otherwise it will cause a lot of waste.

So is it harmful to eat larvae and invisible eggs? Please rest assured that the larvae and eggs are free from germs and do no harm to the human body, and it doesn't matter if you accidentally eat them.

But in some cases, grain pests can pose a threat to human health. For example, the adults gather together to produce a secretion of benzoquinone, which is carcinogenic. If this adult appears in the grain, do not eat it. There are Indian grain borer pupa can spin silk, easy to make flour caking, spoilage, if there is this kind of adult in the flour, do not eat.

(2) after cereal grains are infected by insects, the original protective outer tissue is destroyed and is vulnerable to some plant pathogenic fungi, which often produce mycotoxins that are harmful to human beings. For example, the infamous aflatoxins and vomiting toxins produced by Fusarium are far more dangerous to human health than insects. Therefore, when you encounter the situation that insect-infested grains are accompanied by caking and mildew, don't eat them any more.

Second, how to prevent grain pests in the family?

First of all, experts suggest that the storage conditions should be improved, the storage containers should be kept clean, and the entry of rice weevil and other storage pests should be prevented, so as to reduce the probability of pests. Measures to prevent pests include the following:

1. Grain storage tools should be clean and strict. It is best to put grain in jars, altars and buckets with a tight lid. If you use a cloth bag, wrap a plastic bag over the cloth bag and fasten the mouth of the bag.

2. Soak the cloth bag in the boiled pepper water, then put the grain in the air-dried bag, then wrap some of the new pepper in gauze, put it on the top, middle and bottom of the grain, and fasten the mouth of the bag. This not only prevents mildew, but also repels insects.

3. Mix the kelp and rice in the proportion of 1: 100 by weight, and take out the kelp every week to get rid of moisture, which can keep the rice dry and not moldy, but also kill rice insects.

4. Put a few crab shells, turtle shells or onions in the storage box, or sprinkle 1 inch of plant ash, spread a piece of white paper or gauze, seal the container and place it in a dry and cool place to prevent moth.

5. If the amount of grain preserved is small, it can also be protected by anti-insect packaging or by adding a long-term odor repellent to the bag.

6. When the stored grain has been infected with insects, but there is no caking and mildew, the insects can be removed by the following means:

(1) screen one sieve

When adults appear in cereals, the most commonly used method is "screening". Pass the wormborne grain through the basket, screen the bugs, burn the cleared bugs with fire, clean the containers of grain, pay special attention to the bugs in the cracks and eradicate hidden dangers.

(2) freeze

The rice noodles stored for a long time are most likely to infect insects in summer, but the insect-infestation rate is lower in winter. According to this situation, the remaining rice noodles stored after the winter are put into clean pockets and sent into the freezer in batches and stages, so that they can experience 24 hours of "cold winter" torture. After such treatment, rice noodles are not easy to produce insects after the arrival of summer. It is probably that rice insects and noodle worms can not resist the ruthlessness of "cold winter" and perish themselves in "cold winter".

(3) blow

Put the grain rice noodles in a cool and ventilated place, insert chopsticks into the rice noodles with worms, and the worms in the depths of the rice noodles will climb out of the rice noodles with higher temperature. This method is simple and convenient, but it takes a long time to remove insects.

Third, why cereals are prone to worms in summer?

Raw material type or processed grain, once there are eggs, when the temperature and humidity reach certain conditions, the eggs will hatch adults. There are generally three sources of eggs.

1. When the grain is still in the field, it brings the worm eggs. Although wheat, corn and oats have impact steps in the processing process, the adults in the grain can be crushed and killed. However, some of the eggs carried (mainly in the embryo) will not die and will then enter the finished product and hatch into larvae under suitable conditions.

2. There are pests and eggs in granaries, grain loading tools, equipment and means of transport. But this probability is relatively small, because now mainly using cold chain transport, under the action of low temperature, it is not easy for eggs to survive.

3. There may be insect sources in warehouses, supermarkets, kitchens and other environments. Some eggs are hidden at the bottom of rice cylinders, rice bags, walls and ground seams. When the environment is suitable, the eggs will hatch into adults. If other food products in the supermarket become infested, adults may "visit" nearby grain houses, causing grain pests.

In summer, due to the high environmental temperature and humidity, the eggs dormant in the grain begin to move, first hatch the "white and fat" larvae, after a long or short time, degenerate into adults and complete their life cycle.

Common cereal insects include rice elephant and Indian grain borer, in which rice elephant grows mainly in granular grains such as rice and millet, while Indian grain borer is common in all kinds of grains.

Rice weevil, also known as weevil, belongs to the family Coleoptera and is the main pest of stored grain. Its adults are about the size of two sesame seeds, brown and black, with a long and pointed mouth, with six feet, common in rice and legumes, and the larvae are white, about three to five millimeters long. The adults gnaw on the grain and the larvae eat inside the grain. Harm to rice, rice, wheat, corn, sorghum and so on. The life cycle of the rice elephant is about 20-50 days. From mid-late June to the first and middle of July, the larvae hatch and eat into the grains. The larval stage is about 30 days, pupation in mid-late July, pupation period in 7ml, and adult Eclosion in early August.

The larvae and adults of the rice weevil

There are mainly two kinds of flying insects produced in grains such as flour. One is called Rhizophora. The larva is cylindrical, the adult is russet or brown, and the shell is hard. The red grain beetle is an insect of the family Coleoptera, which is distributed in most provinces of China, tropical and warmer regions of the world; its optimum development temperature is 27-30 ℃; relative humidity is 70%; 30 ℃ completes a generation for about 27 days; it mainly harms flour. The insect has stinky glands that secrete stinky liquid, which makes the flour smell moldy, and its secretion also contains carcinogen benzoquinone.

The adult of Tripterygium rubrum

The other is called Indian grain borer, which is distributed all over the world. It is distributed in all provinces, cities and autonomous regions in China except Xizang. Indian grain borer larvae are cylindrical, adults have wings and can fly. Indian grain borer larvae like to eat grain embryos, often spin silk to attach grains and feces, and form a net to seal its surface, making it lump and deteriorate. Sometimes we will find spider-web-like objects in long-term grain storage, which is the "masterpiece" of Indian grain borer.