**Abstract**

During the offseason, when fresh food is not available, humans have to consume stored grain food. Unfortunately, these stored grains are later infested with many pests. Foods stored in bags and bins are very much susceptible to infestation with several pests which can cause extensive post-harvest losses, spoilage, and less demand in markets, causing a huge economic crisis. Hence, successful management of stored grain pests becomes necessary to prevent these from insect pests. Current approaches for their management are one of the promising goals, as it includes preventive practices, monitoring, sanitation, and identification of main pathogens. Different management strategies of all the common stored grain pests viz. grain weevils, grain borers, grain moths, flour moths, mealworms, grain and flour beetles, booklice, mites, and parasites are enlisted here.

**Keywords:** stored grain insect pests, grain loss management, integrated pest management, economic loss management, pest classification

#### **1. Introduction**

Stored grains are heavily damaged by insect pests. These pests cause damage to stored grains resulting in both qualitative and quantitative losses. The main reason behind the occurrence of stored grain pests is the presence of favorable climates for their growth and survival. At various processing stages of grains, i.e., during the process of development and maturation of seeds, processing in threshing yards, during transmission of seeds, or storage large number of insect pests gain access to stored grains. Some pests start damaging the seeds at the ripening stage and continue during storage. Old bags, storage structures, old containers are the major source of infestation [1]. The dispersal and distribution of stored grain pests are caused by the movement of grains from one area to another area either by a passive or active flight of pests as some adult insects possess strong flight. Almost one thousand species are stored grain pests of different stored products all around the world. Undesirable smells and flavor. The majority of stored grain pests belong to two orders, i.e., Coleoptera and Lepidoptera [2].

Stored grain pests possess a serious threat to dried, stored, durable and, perishable agricultural products and non-food derivatives of agricultural products worldwide. Stored grain pests cause serious post-harvest losses, almost 9% in developed countries to almost 20% or more in developing countries [3], besides they also cause contamination of food products by the presence of various live insects, insect products like chemical excretions or silk, dead insects or some other storage structures. Almost 8–10%, i.e., 13 million tons of grains lost due to insects and 100 million tons due to failure to store properly is estimated in stored food products all around the world. Pests such as various insects, pathogens, mites possess serious threats and cause severe damage to grains by producing certain enterotoxins and mycotoxins [4]. Approximately one-third of the world's production, which values almost \$100 billion has been destroyed by almost 20,000 species of field and stored grain pests [5]. The majority of stored grain pests belong to the order of Coleoptera and Lepidoptera that accounting for almost 60 and 10% respectively. Of all the stored grain pests [6]. Stored grain pests generally feed on grain, bore into the kernel and then destroy the germ portion, cause heat and then cause deterioration in-stored grain products thus resulting in huge losses mainly due to nutritional depletion and reduction in market value besides cause contamination by their excretory products, that can be extremely hazardous to human health who process and infest the grains so the loss caused by insect pests is not in terms of quantity but mostly in terms of quality. Qualitative loss in stored grain is caused by chemical changes in proteins, carbohydrates, amino acids which negatively affect the nutritional value of grains.
