Warehouse Almond Moth, Ephestia Cautella

The tropical warehouse moth, Ephestia cautella is a major pest of stored food products worldwide.

Infestations have been reported in cereals and chocolate manufacturing facilities. The tropical warehouse moth infests dried fruit and nuts, cereals, oil seeds, cakes and chocolate products.

Ephestia cautella is also known as the almond moth or cocoa moth. After just 70 days in a facility, the presence of the tropical warehouse moth can causes damage and losses to over 60% of the stock making it an economically important pest.

Warehouse Almond Moth
Overview

The Tropical warehouse moth, Ephestia cautella feeds on a variety of stored products that include rice, wheat, maize, beans, cake, flour, bran, oat meal and maize, dry fruits such as fig, almond, raisins, dates, pears, ground nuts, walnuts and confectionary items such as biscuits and chocolates. The act of feeding can be extremely damaging to the food produce and there is often further contamination of food stuffs with faecal matter.

The Tropical warehouse moth is often confused with the Indian meal moth (Plodia interpunctella). E. cautella originated from tropics or subtropics via imported food that was infested with the moth.