This Weevil Was Born in Your Rice and It’s Hungry

While it has a cute snoot, a rice weevil is a stowaway. It sneaks into your pantry as an egg that its mom laid inside a single grain of rice. Once it hatches, it turns your rice into its new home.

TRANSCRIPT

Something is after your rice. And it’s coming from inside the pantry. But how’d it get there?
The rice weevil is smaller than a grain of rice, but it could reduce your precious bounty to this. If you gave them eight months or so. They’re just like us: They love carbs. Their long snout, called a rostrum, is strong enough to pierce raw grains of rice.

Sharp mandibles at the tip cut through the hardest of grains. They gorge as they go. If they think they’re in danger, they’ll play dead. Don’t they totally blend in?

Now, I bet you didn’t think *this* was happening in your cupboard. To prepare for her babies, mom does what she knows best. She carves out a hole, then she turns around and lays an egg inside, down here. But sometimes she misses! An egg outside a grain of rice won’t survive, so she recycles it, by slurping it up. When she does lay her egg inside the rice, it grows into a larva.

The developing weevil devours the rice and emerges fully grown after about 30 days. All that’s left is a hollow husk. Weevil moms lay their eggs inside rice in the fields or when it’s stored. Those rice grains become tiny trojan horses, making their way into your kitchen. Despite their name, they’re not picky eaters.

To keep weevils out, warehouses fumigate grains. But scientists are exploring an alternative. Using sensitive microphones, they pick up the sounds of larvae chewing, to find where they’re hiding. This listening technique could one day lead to less spraying.

If you discover unwelcome visitors in your rice, toss out the infested grains. Weevils won’t reproduce if it’s cold, and they need some moisture to live. So store your good stash in airtight containers in a cool, dry place. This will keep stowaways from spreading. If you do end up eating one, don’t panic. Rice weevils won’t make you sick. You’ve just gotten a touch more protein.