1). The GGB is capable of subsisting and breeding in a number of media; e.g. maize and cassava. The pest seems to prefer stable maize, i.e. maize which is on cobs rather than shelled or unstable maize. In shelled maize, the reproduction rate is much less and the oviposition period is about seven days longer.2). The female GGB starts to lay eggs when she is five to ten days old. She may live to about sixty one days, during which period she may lay fifty to six hundred eggs. The number of eggs laid depends on the availability of food and the temperature. The male GGB lives for about forty five days.
3). The eggs hatch into larvae, larvae into pupae and pupae into adult beetles (see diagram below).
