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In the past few weeks (winter) I've started to notice these insects crawling about various places of the home.

  • Slow-moving like a beetle.
  • Black all over.
  • Hard to see but they have two prongs sticking out of the front.
  • I own dogs and cats.
  • I live in Tel-Aviv, Israel.
  • I live on the second floor.

Very hard to capture in an image so I tried a video. Here's a Gif:

enter image description here

What is this species?

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    $\begingroup$ That's just a weevil: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Weevil By the way, drop the like in "like a beetle": they are beetles. $\endgroup$
    – user24284
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 11:58
  • $\begingroup$ @GerardoFurtado Thank you. I've actually never heard of them. Using your information as a starting point, I believe the ones we have are specifically the Rice Weevil. $\endgroup$
    – Rotem
    Commented Jan 15, 2018 at 12:06
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    $\begingroup$ @GerardoFurtado I wouldn't say just a weevil. This is very likely some type of grain/rice/maize weevil. If you've been seeing multiple of them, that likely means they are breeding in some container of grain (rice or corn perhaps) you have in your home and could be well on their way to an infestation if your grain source is large enough. I recommend you check all sources of dried foods in your home to see if you hear/see weevils in it or coming out of the container. $\endgroup$
    – theforestecologist ♦
    Commented Jan 16, 2018 at 3:11
  • $\begingroup$ @theforestecologist I said "just" because a weevil is an easy species to identify, that's what I meant. Also, regarding your advice, you're talking to the OP, not me, right? It's not clear the way you wrote your comment... $\endgroup$
    – user24284
    Commented Jan 16, 2018 at 3:21
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    $\begingroup$ @theforestecologist Yes, I know! I live in Australia, where I never saw them, but in South America (where I'm from) they are very very common, specially in beans. I'm vegan, so I normally don't do that, but a lot of people in South America simply don't care, they cook the beans/rice/whatever with the weevils. They say, joking, that "it has more proteins". $\endgroup$
    – user24284
    Commented Jan 16, 2018 at 3:49

1 Answer 1

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Based on the hard-looking outer "shell" and elongated snout ("rostrum"), this is certainly a type of beetle called a weevil.

Given the size of the weevil, the time of year and the location of your home (second floor in a large city), I would guess this is certainly some species of nuisance/pest weevil.

Candidates include:

Wheat weevil (Sitophilus granarius)

enter image description here

  • Range: Worldwide
  • Food: wheat, oats, rye, barley, rice and corn
  • Appearance: 3–5 mm long with elongated snouts; reddish-brown
  • Life History: 36-254 eggs in 5-20 weeks

Rice weevil (Sitophilus oryzae)

enter image description here

  • Range: worldwide
  • Food: wheat, rice, and corn
  • Appearance: 2-3 mm, long nose, brown/black in color with 4 orange/red spots
  • Life History: 300 - 400 eggs per month [source]
  • Note: can fly

Maize weevil (Sitophilus zeamais)

enter image description here

  • Range: cosmopolitan in warmer climes [source]
  • Food: corn (maize), wheat, rice, sorghum, oats, barley, rye, buckwheat, peas, cottonseed, other types of stored, processed cereal products (e.g., pasta, cassava, other coarse milled grains), and even has been known to attack fruit while in storage (e.g., apples)
  • Appearance: 2.5 - 4 mm, brown with four reddish-brown spots on elytra, long/thin snout, and elbowed antennae
  • Life history: 300 - 400 eggs per 36 days

If you've been seeing multiple of them, that likely means they are breeding in some container of grain (wheat, rice or corn perhaps) you have in your home and could be well on their way to an infestation if your grain source is large enough. I recommend you check all sources of dried foods in your home to see if you hear/see weevils in it or coming out of the container.

Given the relatively large number of eggs each female can lay and given the month long generation time, this is an infestation you'd like to stop quickly.

Note: all info is from the linked/cited Wikipedia pages unless otherwise cited.

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  • $\begingroup$ I had an infestation once -- bag of dried corn. Vacuuming wouldn't pull the buggers out of my carpets, so I was forced to pull them out one by one using a headlamp and tweezers $\endgroup$
    – theforestecologist ♦
    Commented Jan 16, 2018 at 3:44
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    $\begingroup$ Thank you. Source was eventually tracked to a bag of dry pasta. $\endgroup$
    – Rotem
    Commented Jan 16, 2018 at 5:11

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