Ugh ugh... Taxes and food moths

[bettyandbob]

So 60% of the family are gluten free. We buy a lot of various flours, bags of rice, bags of legumes. At some point a moth was brought in and we couldn't find the source while the whole pantry got taken over. Today, I took out everything. I washed the outside of every can and bottle and we decided to toss every single bag and box. So much food.

 

The dh has me look at the taxes. I got to see just how much my family is depending on me and my three part time jobs -- almost 35% of our family income. That is downright scary.

 

So staring at our crappy income reality while throwing out a lot of food.

 

Not a great night.

 

BTW anyone got good tips on making sure we eradicate these things.

[regentrude]

check the walls and ceiling and doors of your pantry. The larvae hide in non-food areas, crevices - not just IN the food.

 

You do not have to throw away everything. you can freeze it or bake it to destroy any insects.

[Tanaqui]

Last time I had pantry moths, I froze everything and didn't tell anybody how bad the infestation had been. It's extra protein!

 

But seriously, everything gets frozen before I put it in my pantry now. I also never keep anything in bags and boxes - they go straight into jars.

[Tsuga]

Jars solved that problem.

 

I once had to do that with grains. So sad. What a terrible night--I'm sorry. :(

[texasmama]

I moved every grain item into mason jars after going through every single box and bag. I thoroughly wiped the shelving, including the underneath. I lost some food but not all.

[J-rap]

I've heard that bay leaves keep bugs away from flour.  If I'm having a problem, I temporarily store all flour in the refrigerator, and thoroughly clean the shelves.  With the next batch of flour bags, I put loose bay leaves directly inside each bag, and also scatter them among the shelves.

 

I don't know if it's coincidence, but whenever I do this, I don't have problems.  It's only when I forget to add bay leaves to the ongoing new bags and the loose bay leaves on the shelves slowly drift away, that I might start having problems again. 

[LuvToRead]

I had them several years ago and couldn't get rid of them.  I had moved all my grains into the fridge or freezer.  I finally realized I had an open bag of bird seed.  Threw out the bird seed and got rid of the moths.  I  still store a lot of flours/grains in the fridge, and I use a lot of mason jars.

[skimomma]

I have never had moths but my mom had a 20 year infestation that has scarred me for life.  So much so that I would not open packages she mailed me inside the house.  I opened them outdoors and put whatever she mailed in the freezer for a few days.

 

But I buy a lot of bulk grains and legumes.  I know that the store I buy them from has occasional flare ups.  So I take all of the precautions already discussed.  I use mason jars to store them.  In fact, I fill the jars directly at the store so they come into the house sealed and ready to put in the pantry.  If I have items that are either too large or no suitable for jars, I store them in the freezer.  I always have 25# bags of wheat berries, rice, and rye going and I store them in my chest freezer whenever possible.  When the freezer is full (after the end of the harvest), it is cool enough outside that I can store those bags in a sealed container out in the garage until enough room frees bad up in the freezer.  

 

I always check my mason jars before opening.  A handful of times, I have found live moths in a jar.  I FREAK OUT, then calmly take the whole jar outside and dispose in the compost bin.  I pour boiling water over the jar and lid before washing as normal.  Then thank my lucky stars it was all in the jar and no harm was done.

 

Unless your items are visibly teeming with life, would can probably salvage much of it by putting it in the freezer.

[melbotoast]

Get some traps after you clean up your pantry. They only attract the males, but it can help prevent the stragglers from starting the cycle over again. We found some at Home Depot.

Edited April 15, 2016 by melbotoast

[cintinative]

I keep our gluten free non-whole grain stuff in plastic containers. I am curious about what you all are saying here--are the moths able to get inside somehow? 

 

All of our GF whole grain stuff goes in the freezer because we don't use it fast enough before it would spoil. 

 

I have heard about these moths before and they sound just horrible. I would certainly want to cry if my GF stash got infested. It would be like my upright freezer going out.  I am so sorry OP. 

[Ravin]

1. Freeze all bagged/boxed dry goods for a few days before putting in the pantry. As much as possible, store things in plastic, ceramic, or glass storage containers. Most dry goods such as flours can also be stored in the freezer if you have room.

 

2. place sticks of spearmint gum around items in the pantry. They can also be placed inside boxes. This repels the larvae and moths and will discourage infestations from spreading from one container to another. I learned this trick from my mom.

 

3. Instead of throwing away infested dry powder foods such as flours, you can freeze them to kill the larvae and then sift them through a mesh strainer. This sort of infestation doesn't contain much in the way of a germ hazard, so this effectively removes the critters and leaves your edible food. This obviously only works where the food particles are consistently smaller than the infesting organisms. 

 

4. For items stored in large bulk quantities--we, for example, buy rice in 50 lb. bags, airtight plastic containers such as they sell at Costco or Walmart work great for storage. They may be sold in the pet section, but if you look at the small print on the label they are commonly graded for human food storage as well. We keep our rice in one of these.

[Cinder]

The last time I had moths it took a long time to get rid of them. I cleaned everything out and even checked cans because I found moth eggs on the underside rims . . . back when cans had rims on the bottoms. I still ended up with moths. Turns out they were hiding in an unopened box of ziploc bags. :ohmy:  No kidding. I guess they liked the folds of the bags just as much as any other crevice. So since the pantry had wood bars screwed into the walls to hold up the shelves--and you know how those give moths great hiding spots--I ended up emptying it and throwing nearly everything open-able out and then bombing the pantry. Ugh. It was a big pain but I was finally able to get rid of those buggers!

[prairiewindmomma]

We keep our bulk grains and legumes in 25 gallon HDPE buckets with gamma seal lids.  Everything else is in glass jars or plastic cereal boxes with lid. We have no open exposure of food at all.  If you are anywhere near an IKEA, their IKEA Burken jars are glass sided with gasketed lids are inexpensive and good.  We've used them for the last several years.  Canning jars work equally well.

[Happy]

Get some traps after you clean up your pantry. They only attract the males, but it can help prevent the stragglers from starting the cycle over again. We found some at Home Depot.

Yes! 

 

We routinely put flour in the freezer for a while after purchase, but we still got moths in pasta, dog food, and bird seed. Not sure if the moths were brought in that way or if the critters just found a welcome mat around those items. Either way,  these traps are great. We especially keep one or two near the dog food stored in the garage--that really seems to help the most.

[Cinder]

Just remembered a few months ago we had moths that came in a bag of rice. Found it right after opening the bag--didn't notice them in the store--straight after bringing it home. So they didn't get into everything because the bag hadn't gone into the pantry yet. We zipped it in a ziploc right away and took it straight back to the store. Turned out the store was having a moth problem in the rice section and they ended up having to get rid of all the (plastic) bagged rice. These were the soft plastic bags that easily get holes in them from being handled. (There were 3 different brands with that kind of packaging on the same shelf.) I'm sure it was moth paradise! The store brand rice now comes in a thicker, "harder" plastic bag that doesn't get holes so easily and I haven't seen any moths since.

[Lizzie in Ma]

I keep all of the same sort of things in a cooler at the floor of the pantry for the same reason.  The old yellow fly strips work really well for the damn pantry moths.

[TrulySusan]

We got pantry moths this fall. I threw away tons of stuff, and froze everything else for a week. I also used these:

http://www.amazon.com/Pheromone-Attractant-Insecticide-Dr-Killigans/dp/B00U1SMPC2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1460813235&sr=8-1&keywords=dr.+killigan%27s

 

It took several weeks for them to be totally gone, but (fingers crossed) we seem to have beat it.

 

Eta- I do think the traps made a huge difference. When it looked as if all the moths had gone, more would show up in the traps.

Edited April 16, 2016 by TrulySusan