Indian meal moths in your pantry!!

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I just found at least 5 little brownish moths in my storage pantry. The Gardens Alive! catalogue leads me to believe these may be the Indian meal moths - supposed to infest flour, cereal, grains and seeds, chocolate(horrors!!!), cake mixes, rice, nuts, dried fruit, dog food, powdered milk, tea, herbs, and spices. The only thing on that list I DON't have in my pantry is the dog food. The Gardens Alive catalogue sells a cardboard trap with sex pheromone lure... but it seems to be expensive: 2 traps with 2 lures=9.99 replacement lures=5.45 eachk. That's not so bad, but it says the lures only last 2 to 3 months. Anyone else buy these? Any other cheaper source???? I wonder if the lures are sealed in foil,etc so your "2 to 3 months" doesn't start until they are opened??

-- jeanne (jeanne@hurry.now), October 11, 1999

Answers

I've used them and they work great. The lure comes in a sealed package, so the 2 - 3 months would be from the time you open them. Shop around, other catalogs offer them too. Gardens Alive is the most expensive place to buy a lot of stuff. Try Morgan's Wholesale in Misouri for good prices.

-- kathy (redfernfarm@lisco.com), October 11, 1999.

Thanks Kathy!! Would you happen to have a web site address, or phone number of that place in Missouri??? Thanks!!

-- jeanne (jeanne@hurry.now), October 11, 1999.

Perhaps better yet but at least as good is a bag of diatomaceous earth -- meaning a powderized "clay" made from gazillions of tiny fossilized diatoms. These little critters, even though they may have been dead for millenia, are irresistable to mealworms and mealworm moths -- but once they bite into the diatoms, its like swallwoing thousands of ninja stars: there innards get lacerated and they never have a chance to lay so much as one egg. Voila -- no more mealworms. The stuff is literally dirt cheap -- a bag of a pound and more is usually avialble for under $5. If you can;t get it at your local helathfofod store, you should be able to order a bag from Bob's Red Mill in Milwaukie, Oregon -- which I presume would have a website under bobsredmill or redmill or somesuch. The stuff lasts forever -- as it has already lasted foreveer, and you only need a small amount to effectively "treat" a large volume of stored grains. It is also digestible, non-toxic, etc., so can even be added directly to your stored grains without risk of injury or illness.

-- Roch Steinbach (rochsteinbach@excite.com), October 11, 1999.

Okay, just back from the Bob's Red Mill website, after searching bobsredmill. They do not list diatomaceous earth on their site, but they carry it and seel it in their retail store. If you have no luck getting it from a local source, call them and they certainlywoudl send a bag, cheap.

-- Roch Steinbach (rochsteinbach@excite.com), October 11, 1999.

If you are storing flour you can put bay leaves in the top. Somehow it is something that those little creatures don't like. You can also put your flour in the freezer for a few days to kill any eggs.

I am not sure what little creatures I have had in the past, but they do infest everything. Like the time I was serving dinner and decided to add another box of spagetti noodles to the pot because I didn't think I had enuf . . . after pouring the package in the boiling water, there were little critters floating around. Yuk!

-- Penda Zone (PendaZ@excite.com), October 12, 1999.



Added/converted protein, YUM!!!

-- Kristi (securxsys@cs.com), October 12, 1999.

Jeanne - I believe the trap you are referring to is called "Pantry Pest". I had somewhat limited success with it against a severe infestation. One thing to look for are the worm-like larvae, which can show up anywhere (especially on ceilings) and I expect would be unlikely to be attracted to the traps. What finally resolved it for me was a flea bomb. Good luck! In the meantime, hand kill any moths or larvae that you find or it will get out of control.

-- Brooks (brooksbie@hotmail.com), October 12, 1999.

Order 50# of diatomaceous earth for about $60 from here. Mine came real quick, I packaged it in quarts (enough for 300lbs of beans) to give away. Everyone is gonna want this stuff.

-- bw (home@puget.sound), October 12, 1999.

On several threads over the weeks I keep seeing people calling the bugs in their flour/other stuff as "these little black things," or some such description, so I have to tell you what an exterminator explained to me in 1958. We had an infestation and when he came out he laughed and said to me, "These are called weevils. They are harmless, and in fact, are good protein. The pioneers had them in everything they ate. That is how flour sifters came to be...to sift these little fellers out." Just for what it's worth and a :-) or two.

-- Elaine Seavey (Gods1sheep@aol.com), October 12, 1999.

ish. ish. i once had an infestation of those little moths that took forever to cure. i had left a bag of nuts too long. ish. about those weevils--my father used to just eat around them in the oatmeal....what a guy. me, i get grossed out thinking about the weevil crap.

-- tt (cuddluppy@yahoo.com), October 13, 1999.


I believe that the weevils and moths are two separate pests. I, too, had an infestation last year. I checked all pantry contents, even opening cake mix boxes and looking at the bags inside. If the contents looked uninfested, I put them in the freezer for 3 weeks. Literally emptied my pantry! I scrubbed and vaccuumed and hand- killed any moths for several weeks and they finally disappeared. I am now fanatic about putting all new purchases of grain products into the freezer for 3 weeks before placing in the pantry. No more bugs!!! Ruth

-- Ruth (reebee@gte.net), October 17, 1999.

We had a bad infestation a few years ago when my teenager was kind of cavalier about cleaning her bird cage. They reproduced in the seeds that fell down by the cage, and quickly spread to the kitchen and pantry. I bought Pantry Pest and it really did attract the moths like gangbusters. But they kept showing up as new eggs hatched - eggs that had been laid in little dark corners way up inside cupboards, in crevices, etc. I finally had to get out the scrubbrush and get into the out of the way places, and to be scrupulous about keeping everything in sealed containers and immediately killing any lone moth I'd see flying around. For now, the problem is solved.

-- Fiver (fiver2000@yahoo.com), October 18, 1999.

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