Both the two above species are included on the same page because of the similarity of habitat and identification, the latter being the main problem. Hence both beetles are here for comparison.

Both the confused and red flour beetles, known as "bran bugs," primarily attack milled grain products, such as flour and cereals. Both adults and larvae feed on grain dust and broken kernels, but not the undamaged whole grain kernels. These beetles often hitchhike into the home in infested flour and can multiply into large populations. Some survive on food accumulations in cabinet cracks, crevices, and furniture. Confused flour beetles are the most abundant and injurious insect pest of flour mills in the U.Kingdom, United States and Australia. They do not bite or sting humans or pets, spread disease, or feed on or damage the house or furniture.

In addition to milled grain products, beetle specimens have been found in barley, breakfast cereals, corn, cornmeal, crackers, flour, millet, oats, rice, rye, wheat and wheat bran, nutmeats, dried fruits, legume seeds, beans, milk chocolate, cottonseed, peas, powdered milk, sunflower seeds, vetch seeds, spices, herbarium and museum specimens, and even baits poisoned with arsenic's. It is particularly injurious in warehouses and in factories making starch products. Flour infested by the larvae has a greyish colour and a tendency to go mouldy.

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