moths! ugh!
so this morning i was getting ready to make some oatmeal when i saw a moth fly out of the top shelf of my cupboard. uh oh, i thought. but the oatmeal was tightly sealed and i didn't have time to search out what exactly was going on up there. then i decided to get out the raisins. they seemed weird. they had all these black crumbly specks on them. but they're somewhat old-ish so thought maybe just the sugar from the raisins was crystalizing. so i tasted one. and then looking in the bottom of the box and saw... a worm.
*cut to me freaking out and spitting everywhere and brushing my teeth for 10 minutes and gagging and michael waking up and being like 'wtf' and more of me freaking out and then being late for work because of it*
i am squeamish. like, incredibly squeamish. to the point that i may not eat the rest of the day.
how do i figure out what exactly has been contaminated and what hasn't and how do i GET RID OF THEM? i am NOT ok with these moths in my cabinets. i can't afford to get all new stuff. >:(
thanks for the instructions... i've never had this happen before, but then again i've never really had more dry stuff in my cabinets before either. this blows.
i'm not going to get worms from putting that raisin in my mouth, am i? i didn't swallow it.
oh man. this is the grossest thing to happen to me in awhile ::)
This is going on in my cupboard now too. Little worms came with a box of brown rice flour. I noticed them & dumped out the rice flour, but now little moths fly out of my cupboard randomly, but I don't know if they are hanging out in any of my bagged/boxed food, or just living off random crumbs on the shelves. I checked everything & didn't see any worms or moths in any food bags or boxes, so I'm not letting them bother me.
I started saving up plastic containers and glass jars from things like protein powder, nooch, pickles, peanut butter & such and am going to be dumping all of my bag & cardboard box stored things into those to keep critters out. I think it will help keep my cabinent more organized too.
I have never had this issue but thanks to all the threads lately about bugs in various dried goods, I am totally putting everything that is not canned in a container. Bleah!
I had this happen. Do as BP suggested. And then once you think you have them all done, buy a LOT of bay leaves and toss them about your cupboards. All your cupboards.
Once everything is in sealed containers, glass or plastic, it should be ok. Plastic bags give them places to hide and multiply.
You will be fine! Its just one raisin that probably didn't have anything on it and you didn't even swallow it. Its ok!
I've had this problem for *a year and a half*. I'm starting to think it's impossible to totally get rid of them and I'm terrified of us moving one day and moving with them.
Things that have drastically reduced the population:
- take a bulk bin break, if you use them. I'm pretty sure I got mine from the co-op, though they do store their grains in refrigeration before they're put out, it's an expensive way to store them and their distributors don't necessarily take the same precautions.
- flours that come into the house go straight to the freezer for a few days. Kills the eggs. Are you maybe still eating dead moth eggs?? Uhm.. just don't think about that part.
- grains all need to be sealed in *airtight* jars/containers. They can get into tupperware and ziplock. Lock and Lock containers are great! Tight sealing glass jars are also good.
- Anything that isn't currently sealed as described must be thrown away. Even if you don't see moths, get rid of them. Aside from grains, I've found moths in dried fruit (as you've discovered), powdered sugar, paprika ("*shake shake* Why won't anything come out?? OH MY GOD!!") and chocolate. It hurts like hell to throw all that food away but.. do it.
- Clean all shelves that contain food with vinegar/water solution. Your kitchen will smell like salad dressing.
- Buy moth traps. They're sticky traps with a phermone square and they do catch a lot of moths.
- For homemade "moth traps" -- Mix boric acid (borax) into cornmeal and leave it in an open jar. Moths will go in and lay eggs. Be really brave and don't throw it out. Let the eggs hatch. The maggots will eat the cornmeal/boric acid mix and die.
Moths in my house seem to have gotten desperate. I haven't found anything with a scary infestation in a while, but they are laying eggs in stuff like bits of flour that stuck to the bottom of the blender.
We've had moth issues in our current house. I haven't seen problems in the kitchen (yet). Mostly they just fly around at night and freak me out. Does anyone know how to get rid of them? Most of the solutions I've found on the internet are in regard to kitchen cupboards and clothing drawers. Those aren't really problems we have. I think that our moths are attracted to our lights. Will lavendar sachets and so forth work at all in large open areas? I welcome any/all suggestions.
i am dreading going home from work and dealing with this. i have recruited bf to help me, as i'm sure i will be panicking the entire time. not to mention all my lost money. they seem to only be on the top shelf for now... which is where ALL my flour/sugar/baking supplies are. damnit. not only do i not have money to buy new, i don't have money to buy nice containers to put them in. until payday, anyway.
ugh ugh, i feel itchy and squirmy just thinking about this.
rabidchild: thank you for your comprehensive guide on what exactly to do.
i'll update you all tomorrow on how disgusting this all ends up being. i'm sure you can't wait.
I can relate! I have resorted to putting everything in my cupboards in either tupperware, rubbermaid or glass jars with tight fitting lids. This does seem to keep them isolated if you dounknowingly bring something home from the store with you. I have done this for years and it really does work, because due to gluten intolerance, I keep several different kinds of flours in the house. My hubby calls me the tupperware queen, but he can call me names all he wants. It keeps the bugs out.
I read somewhere that bay leaves in your cupboards will repel bugs too.
Good luck with it.
I don't know, you all might think I'm really gross, but I'm not making a big deal out of my moth/worm friends. I'm just checking everything before I use it & dumping dry goods into containers as I get containers to use.
lisa - i don't think you're gross at all. we all have our own thresholds for things like this. mine is inconveniently low.
so here's what ended up happening:
by the time i got home, michael had already scrubbed one set of cupboards. not too many things in that one seemed contaminated, but anything iffy i tossed. all the rest (flours, sugars, rice, etc) i put in the freezer for a weeklong quarantine. they all looked totally fine, but...just in case. so we thought we were done, when i remembered we have an island where we keep our cereal and some flours and dried peppers. i started going through that and it all started back up again. a bag of flour (in a plastic bag) had a moth in it. i threw out all our cereal, mainly because micael can't put anything away correctly (he leaves the bags open. open! wtf?!) and it freaked me out. then he started looking through things since he knows i'm squeamish. he believes he found the nest in a baggie of dried green chilies. so that all got cleaned out.
i'm sad that my flour and rice is quarantined. i think it's fine, but my trembling tummy won't let me use it just yet. and payday is a few days off yet. we shall see. we're going to get some canisters to start keeping things in this weekend.
what's funny is that yesterday morning michael thought i was being stupid and at lunch time even when i was talking about it, he was scoffing at me. then he started cleaning while i was gone and he ended up apologizing because he didn't realize what exactly was happening i guess. sometimes i'm right, my love!
oh yeah, well i forgot to mention that they were in a bag of open (of course, sheesh) chrysanthemum (sp?) tea that michael got in chinatown in nyc. he was piiiissssssed.
that'll learn him to close. his. food. up.
i felt bad for him though, he really loved that tea and was so excited when he found it there in a little specialty tea shop. i should order him some.
oh yeah, well i forgot to mention that they were in a bag of open (of course, sheesh) chrysanthemum (sp?) tea that michael got in chinatown in nyc. he was piiiissssssed.
that'll learn him to close. his. food. up.
i felt bad for him though, he really loved that tea and was so excited when he found it there in a little specialty tea shop. i should order him some.
Yep, forgot about the tea. Had to throw away a TON including some Rooibos tea my friend had her parents send her from South Africa when she was going to school here. :| Not so much a Lipton I can go replace.
I had a moth infestation once. Now EVERYTHING is in glass jars and goes directly into the freezer for 2 days (flour, grains, beans)
I even had to throw CAYENNE PEPPER that they went into it. This was the real hot kind too. Crazy.