moth in my pantry

[cindyluwho]

After reading the posts about weevils in flour, I thought I'd ask to see if anyone has had a problem with moths? I'm not exactly sure what these critters are, but in the past my kitchen has gotten completely infested with them. The larvae can bore through plastic and infest everything from nuts to pasta to cocoa. They are quite small and hard to notice. They are able to crawl across the ceiling between my pantry cupboards and move from item to item. I threw everything away and cleaned all my cupboards with bleach, which got rid of them for awhile but I've occasionally noticed some of my packages with larvae and have had to toss them. It's pretty gross! Short of storing everything in glass or metal containers, does anyone have any suggestions? Does anyone know what these little guys are, exactly?

[SandyM]

I get these annoying things in my garage in the fall months - they infest the bird seed.

There are traps you can buy - I'm sure you can find them at K-Mart. I can't recall what they're named, but they come in a green box. It's a brown triangle, and you slip a piece of tape through a hole in the bottom. This tape has some sort of erotic stimulant for these little guys, and it drives them wild. They're drawn to the little trap, get stuck on the walls of this triangle thing, and they're there till ya toss it away.

Each box comes with two traps. These usually clear up my problem.

I've never had them in the house, but I'm sure it will work in the pantry. In fact, the word pantry is in the name of the product. I'm sorry I can't give you more information than that.

Good Luck!

[clairea]

I had a problem with these moths recently. As you said, they get into everything. I threw almost everything in my pantry away, but, like you, still had a bit of a problem. I have learned to look for larvae everywhere in the kitchen -- the latest place I found it is on the crown molding ?!? My exterminator gave me some traps like SandyM described, and they seemed to help (but having that box with dead moths in my pantry really grossed me out), so you might try that to.

[gertdog]

I have those traps! The ones I have are made by SureFire and are called Pantry Pest Traps. I was shocked... shocked, I say... to find out just how many moths were flitting around in my pantry unnoticed by me. The first time I placed the traps out, they filled up in a few days. I panicked and went through everything in my cupboards looking for the source of the infestation and found nothing. I still don't know where they were hiding.

Now I replace them every few months and I trap few if any moths, so the problem seems to be under control.

[Anne]

I lived in a very old house for several years and could not get rid of the little critters - there were even flour weevils living in the second story where there was no food. There were so many gaps, cracks, and crevices in the kitchen walls, cabinets, etc. that the little critters could just duck out of the way whenever I tried to clean them out. I am no longer in that dive but I don't ever want to go through that type of bug infestation again. I keep all my bulk dry goods (grains, pasta, dried fruit, etc.) in food quality 5 gal. plastic buckets with very tight lids or glass jars with screw tops (1/2 pint to 1 gal). Even though I buy bulk organically grown dry goods I have never had a problem with reinfestation, but if I did, I would be able to dump the infested container without worry about spreading the problem.

[Beth]

One thing not mentioned....try putting bay leaves on your pantry shelves. I have heard that it is supposed to help repel all kinds of critters that like to get into your food (ants, roaches, weevils and moths). I can't say it works for sure, but I bought a bag from Penzey's and put them out liberally here. I can say that I haven't had a bug problem.

I think it is the larvae that burrow through plastic bags, spice packets and pouches of anything. You have to be very thorough and merciless to get rid of them. Tupperware and similar containers for all your dry good helps, but make sure you check the rims of the containers and lids (I found a lot of the eggs or whatever they are there waiting to hatch and go after a new food supply-- they look like little white oval, web-covered bits). Check bags for holes or any clumps or webby looking stuff that could be housing larvae. Look under the shelves (they hang upside down) and everything you can think of.

In TX, I have found them in bird seed, and I even think I had a couple come inside through the stove vent exhaust pipe, because I saw a couple in the cabinet under my stove where there is no food. They didn't live to tell about it (they are not particularly fast or evasive), and none have followed -- but do think about where they might enter from outside. They are trying to assure a good food supply for their offspring, and a bag of rice, cereal, pet food, much less a whole pantry, looks like paradise. Once their offspring reproduce, you can have them all over, and it gets harder to discover every last one.

Clean, shift stuff around, inspect, set out bay leaves and traps and watch everything for a while. Be meticulous, persistent and patient...Good luck

[TheresaM]

Does anyone know where I can buy the Pantry Pest Traps by SureFire ? This is the first time I have these moths and I can't stand it.

[SandyM]

I get mine at the store where I buy my bird seed; I suspect K-Mart or Wal-Mart would have them.

[Susann]

Moths,weevils, and larvae...oh my!!!!! http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif http://www.cookinglight.com/bbs/smile.gif

(sorry-it is Friday and I am counting down until the weekend!)

[gobluem82]

The Pantry Pest traps can also be found at most garden centers with the insecticides. They are also available through catalogs--I've seen them in The Gardeners' Supply as well as Gardens Alive. I must have gourmet moths, since I most often find them in my arborio rice!

[Ralph]

Oddly enough, this article appeared in my local paper, the Naperville (Illinois) Sun:

Got bugs?

Hungry pantry insects stir up trouble in the kitchen
By Kathy Millen

Barbara Henning got more than she bargained for in the large bag of brown rice she bought in bulk packaging from a suburban food store several years ago.

At the time, she couldn't see the tiny moth eggs nestled among the grains of rice. When the eggs began to hatch a few weeks later, her cupboard became infested with insects. She tossed the rice and scoured every nook and cranny of her kitchen with disinfectant and bleach to keep the bugs from spreading.

If Henning can unknowingly bring bugs into her kitchen, anyone can. A culinary educator and sanitation instructor at Lexington College, a Chicago-based school for students studying hospitality management, Henning knows how ubiquitous these pantry insects are, even in the cleanest of kitchens.

"Critters are a fact of life," said Henning, who hasn't had an infestation for years. "You aren't going to be free of them. If a product looks really, really old, the likelihood you will have a critter is higher."

Pantry pests can move in any time of the year. Easy to please, they love all kinds of dry foods. They munch on macaroni, feast on flour, revel in rice. Once they infiltrate a kitchen, they make a banquet of things like cornmeal, cereal, spaghetti, dried fruits, nuts, candy, bird seed, dry pet food, chocolate, cake mixes, spices and even dried flower arrangements.

Usually the first sign of a problem is the appearance of small beetles crawling on the counter tops, caterpillars creeping up walls or across the ceiling or moths fluttering through the room.

"If you have cornflakes and it looks like raisin bran, those aren't raisins," said James E. Schuster, extension educator/horticulture with the University of Illinois Cooperative Extension Service. "If they are walking, they aren't raisins, either."

Schuster's humor helps put the problem into perspective. Although the insects are a nuisance, they aren't a health hazard, he said, and everybody, at one time or another, unknowingly has eaten tiny insect eggs or larvae. The only real threat these insects pose is psychological. Most people are repelled by the thought of bugs in their food.

"It's more of a problem with humans because of their culture," said Schuster. "In some countries, that's not a problem. Insects are a primary source of nutrition in their diet."

There are more than 30 types of insects that eat our food, including the larder beetle, sawtooth grain beetle, flour beetles, rice weevil, moths, and Indian meal moth. Other less discriminating pantry insects eat both food and non-edibles. The drugstore beetle eats medicine, the cigarette beetle eats tobacco and the ravenous carpet beetle eats wool carpets, bird feathers and fallen hairs.

Even though pantry insects don't bite, their sharp, pointy-tipped legs walking along your skin may feel like a bite, Schuster said.

Pantry insect eggs, larvae, pupas and adults are most commonly found in foods that come from seeds, Schuster said. Often it is difficult, if not impossible, to spot them because their eggs are smaller than the finest grains of flour.

But there are clues that these bugs might be present in food. Henning said to look for tiny holes in the cardboard or plastic bags that indicate that pests have eaten their way through to the food inside. A filmy, fuzzy webbing substance that may resemble lint in the crevices of box tops, suggests the presence of moths. And while food in unopened cans is safe from infestation, bugs can take refuge under the paper labels. They also can be found on the underside of cupboard shelves, beneath loose shelving paper, in drawers, in cracks and crevices and any other place where food debris accumulates.

Adult insects will leave the food to mate or to lay eggs outside the food container. Often, the larva is too small to see immediately after hatching, but it quickly grows, sometimes up to an inch long just before the pupal stage.

One of the easiest ways to introduce food-eating bugs into the house is through bird seed, both for wild birds and indoor pets. Most bird seed is contaminated with insects, Schuster said, but isn't a problem if the birds eat it before the insect eggs hatch.

Another major source of infestation is dried dog and cat food. Schuster said that people should resist the urge to buy pet food and other food products in large quantities. Stored in the pantry for any length of time gives any insects present ample time to grow to adulthood, reproduce and start crawling about the kitchen.

Schuster recommends storing susceptible food in small, air-tight containers in the freezer within 24 hours after purchase. Insects in food that has been stored in a cold location, such as the garage, and then frozen, will survive the freezing, he said, because they have gradually adapted to the cold.

If bugs have made their way into the kitchen, Schuster suggests removing all open and sealed packages from cabinets and shelves, discarding infested packages. Check sealed containers to see if insects bored their way through the cardboard, plastic or wax paper.

Wash cupboards, shelves, hardware, cracks and corners with a strong soap and water solution and bleach. Uncontaminated food should be placed in airtight containers and frozen for at least 24 hours. Keep the food in airtight containers for at least six months, opening only long enough to remove the necessary amount of food.

If more insects are seen within six months, either another infestation has occurred or the initial cleaning was inadequate, Schuster said. Any insects found more than six months later, it is probably the result of a new infestation.

Although pantry insects are always unwelcome, a few bugs roaming around the house is actually desirable, Schuster said. If every insect drops dead after a short time in your house, there may be too many toxic chemicals in the air.

"If you are a hundred percent bug-free, you ought to move," he said. "If an insect can't live there, you can't live there. It isn't healthy. There ought to be some kind of insect in your house some time of year."

With all the precautions she takes now, Henning hasn't entertained pantry insects in years. With the exception of brown rice, she still likes to take advantage of the cost savings by buying in bulk. She takes the time to divide up and freeze these products until she is ready to use them. After all, she said, buying in bulk is no bargain if the bugs get to it first.

"A lot of people will buy stuff on sale and they will put it in the back of their cupboard and it will sit there," she said. "It is no longer such a deal if you are not using it or throwing it out."