Anyone Know How to Get Rid of Little Moths in My Pantry?

Been there! They are Pantry Moths and a real pain. The best thing to do is a thorough cleaning again and place everything (rice, breads, grains, cereals, etc) in airtight containers or in the refrigerator. Then, the hardware store should have Pantry Moth Traps that you put in you cupboards. They are the sticky type traps and work well. (You probably brought in the moths from food that you bought.) Good luck.

I understand exactly what you are going through! I hate those little moths. Buy some fresh mint from the market and cheesecloth and make a sachet for each shelf and that will keep them away for about 3 months or so. You can also put some lavendar drops on the sachet.
They really hate mint and lavendar. It works for us. When the sachets lose their potency they come back and I do it again, and they leave.
Best of luck.
E.

same problem for many many months. I got rid of them by putting doublemint gum in the cupboard (read that in a magazine) they were gone for a while then right back they never seem to go away pls let me know if you find a solution. Try the gum and see what happens I cleaned out the pantry washed everything down and bingo right back
good luck

We had that problem too. What you have to do is get rid of everything they have laid eggs on or made cocoons in/on. Make sure you check your cookbooks too. You will want to check the spines of the books and in between pages. I threw out a lot of my cookbooks. The ones that didn't have anything on them are now in the freeze. (That was a suggest that we found on the internet.) You will want to wipe you cupboards/pantry down with bleach and water mix. (I used the Clorox wipes.) You will want to check everything you have in cupboard/pantry to see if they have gotten into it, if they have through it out. If you have anything in boxes check inside of those. If they haven't gotten into the box, pour the contents into a ziplock baggie. You will want to put bay leaves everywhere (also from the internet), on shelves, in the baggies, everywhere. Then just keep killing them as you see them. Good luck that is not a fun situation to have in your kitchen.

Also check anywhere else in the house they could have laid eggs. We found eggs on top of our daughter's dresser.

I hate those things. My Grandma used to put bay leaves in her flour and pasta jars and anything else that she could put them into.

Best buy has great plastic containers for $2 that you can put stuff into, maybe that would help...sorry I do not have better advise....

I had this problem years ago, and tried everything to no avail. Finally, I read about "Bay Leaves". They worked - got rid of them and they didn't return. The article stated that you should put them in your flour canister etc. which I did. Haven't seen them for years. Knock on wood. Hope it helps you. From A..

Hi C.,
You've gotten some great advice here that I won't repeat. The only thing I would add is that in addition to the dry food goods, make sure you throw out any dry pet food and treats, like kibble and dog biscuits. Weevils are often found there. Good luck!

From what I understand these moths go after things like crackers, chips, pasta, etc... So the best thing to do is put those types of things in sealed containers. I had this problem last year and they were in an old box of saltine crackers and spread. Like you we got rid of everything and now make sure all of those types of products are sealed. Good luck.

1. Bay leaves really work. My mom always put them in our flour and rice.
2. Freeze every flour/grain type product for at least a whole day before storing in your cabinet. (After erradication, that is!)
3. Store every flour/grain product in sealable plastic. (I think that's why cake mixes now have a plastic bag inside the box!)

Good luck!

We had the same problem in our pantry. Even though the box said not to use near food, we got those hanging pest controls by Hot Shots and hung one just inside the door. It has worked very well so far. Most of the food in our pantry was in closed boxes, ie, cereal, pasta, rice... like you said, they got into them anyway. This worked for us. Frustrating part, is I don't know who they foound their way in in the first place.....

I dealt with the same problem last year. You can buy a product called BioCare from OSH that traps them on a sticky surface at an unbelievable rate. However, you probably need to throw almost everything out of the cupboards since they bury themselves inside every crack & crevasse. Eventually, I had to get an exterminator come out and spray every inch of the kitchen. Hurry & do it soon because you will begin to see them all around the house. Good Luck.

Don't use mothballs around food, they are toxic. I liked the idea of putting lavendar in there, after washing and cleaning really well. You could also use leaves and stems of Rose Scented Geranium. It smells just like roses and grows really fast if you put it in the ground and water it. I keep some in pots near my doors to keep ants out. The cedar balls might not have been big enough to provide enough scent to keep them away. You could line the inside of your pantry with those cedar panels that are meant to go inside drawers. They have them at Home Depot and they used to be about $8 a box, you might need several boxes. just do the shelves. I line the walls of my under sink cabinet with them to keep ants out of my trash, and it worked. I also use zip lock bags inside all carboard boxes. If they got inside tupperware, I don't think they ate through it, they were probably already in the product when you put it in there.

Hi C.,
It sounds like bollweevils (not sure about the spelling) to me. They are such annoying pests and are hard to get rid of. One thing I do know is that they love grain products. My suggestion would be to buy glass or plastic containers with snap shut lids and put all your dry goods into these containers. Be sure to go through the dry goods thoroughly as you put them away (even sealed boxes) because they can literally infest a product before you know it. Throw away anything that you find them in. Then clean out your cupboard thoroughly with soap and water. Once you get rid of access to their food source they will disappear.

Here is how I got rid of them at my Mom's house. It takes a bit of dedication for about 1-2 months but it works!

1. Go through the cabinets and clear out everything, If it is made of wheat or flour get rid of it! Even if it is not opened. Trust me.

2. When you replace the items store them in the fridge until the moths are GONE.

3. Clean the cabinets inside, underside, on the walls, doors, everything EVERY DAY! Kill in live moths and hunt for the larvae. The larvae can live on the smallest bit of food particle so CLEAN well.

4. Do this for about 1-2 months or until you no longer find any moths.

5. Slowly add food back to your cabinets but store the flour, sugar, cereals, pasta in jars or plastic air tight containers.

Stray from this and they will come back! Good luck!
Love,
J.

When that happened to me, bugs in the flour, I threw everything away. All powder type things, and boxes, cake mix etc. and only kept canned goods. Then wiped out with bleach/water mix. From then on everything was in plastic containers. It's alot of work, and I don't have a ton of stuff in the pantry like I used to.
A weekend full of work, sorry! deb

C.,

They are weevils. And a total pain in the butt. I had a really bad infestation of them in my pantry. I went through everything in my pantry and threw away everything they had gotten into (check the packages - there will be little holes in them where the larva went in)- which will be virtually everything in your pantry, wiped the shelves down with a bleach and water solution, and then I sprinkled whole bay leaves all over the shelves. You can buy bay leaves in big containers at Smart & Final. About once a year I sweep out the bay leaves and put down new ones. I've been weevil free since I started doing this.

T.

Hi C.,

You don't need to hire a pest control company...I had those in my pantry a couple years back...You have Indian Meal Moths...

You will need to take EVERYTHING out of your pantry and inspect anything that is in a box and any items such as rice, flour, pasta, corn starch, etc. Most likely you will need to dump a lot of stuff from your pantry. These moths will live and nest inside your food and they will also lay eggs on the walls and shelves.

Once you get all your items out and go through everything, clean your pantry very well with warm soapy water. Make sure there are no remnants of those moths left in there. After you've tossed out the bags and boxes of food where these moths have been living, you should be okay. You might see one or two within the day or so, but this should solve your problem.

When I had this problem, I didn't know what these moths were or where the heck they were coming from. I called a pest control company for advice, ready for someone to come out and investigate. He told me to do exactly what I told you and we never had another issue. This got rid of them immediately. I found them in bags of rice, flour, pasta...

Good luck...take care of this right away!

-Char

Dear C.:

I'm sorry for what you're having to deal with. You've already gotten fantastic ideas from the other mamas, so I just wanted to give you a little tidbit: Jars!

I've never had the problem that you are describing but I like to keep my house fairly bug resistant because I can't stand the thought of ANY bugs inside! So, EVERYTHING in cupboards is kept in sealed containers. The problem is, depending on how much you cook from scratch, that can get expensive. I cook from scratch a lot so I use large glass jars with screw on lids which are cheap (Target, Cost Plus World Market, Ikea, etc.) I recommend two sizes: a large size which can accomodate an entire bag of flour, sugar or masa and a shorter size which can contain an entire box of cornstarch or powdered sugar (the smallest size is pointless, IMO). Glass is best because it doesn't react with your food PLUS, it looks pretty if you ever end up living in a cupboardless place (like I did several times).

To start out, if you're on an even tighter budget than the price of the jars, remember there are plastic containers at the dollar store. Sometimes, too, you can use ziploc bags and tuck them inside large tins (let's say: Cream of Wheat, Cream of Rice, and oatmeal all together in one tin). This will keep the bugs away until you can finish purchasing your jars.

For the kids, I have five large plastic containers (that pour) for them to serve their own cereal. Glass is too heavy for them. I put these containers on the bottom shelf along with their bowls (and moved them up as the kids grew taller!)

I'd be very cautious about using toxic chemicals around food. I think mechanical solutions are best (obviously, after you've cleaned out what's already in there!) and natural methods of pest eradication/reduction (herbs, oils, etc.).

Eventually, you'll have a perfectly organized and clean pantry with everything in convenient, see-through jars (you can see what needs to be purchased) and, of course, any labeled canned goods that you purchase. Your new pantry will be a pleasure for you to work out of!

Best wishes,

M.

These are such a drag! I've found these hard to eradicate (since you have to track down all the larvae, and those little suckers chew into anything), but I have found that moth traps help a lot. I've gotten them in the past from "solutions" catalog (website of same name, just enter a search for moth trap) though you may find them at local grocery or home stores. They really do a great job of trapping and killing the ones on the move, and then you just have to go through your kitchen bottom to top and get rid of larvae. Good luck!

Ewww... aren't they so gross!! We had the same thing and I about died when finding them. Unfortunately you need to take everything out of your pantry again. Throw every opened boxed item away, clean every inch of everything to make sure they are all gone. There is some sticky paper that you can buy (I think Ace Hardware has them) and put that in there. They are attracted to it and will stick to it. When you buy something boxed, put a ziplock bag around it. We eat mostly fresh items but they few boxed items we had, they managed to find until we bagged everything. Good luck to you.
PS - From what I was told, an exterminator can't really do anything about them.

Try spraying basil oil. You can find it with essential oils.

We had the same problem and called an exterminator. He told us to completely clean out the pantry and put EVERYTHING in airtight canisters or the refrigerator. They can get into unopened boxes of pancake mix, flour, cornmeal etc, to lay eggs, so those are not safe. I think he said the lifecycle of the eggs was 1-2 weeks. Once you get through that period and the larvae/moths are not able to lay more eggs, it stops the infestation.

We had one small resurgence, but were able to control it quickly. We've been moth free for a couple of months now.

Good luck - it was sooo frustrating for us, too.

for a permenant solution you have to find out what they are after. you dont happen to have bird seed in there do you. They live in that stuff. It is a common problem. If you have bird seed store it in the freezer. They cant survive and it doesnt affect the feed.

Yup, these little buggers are persistent, aren't they? I live in Hawaii, so we get lots of critters. What I have done is go to Walmart and but a WHOLE BUNCH of those plexiglass containers that seal shut with a gasket and all. Whenever I open a box of something (cereal, rice, flour, pasta, etc) I put the leftovers into the container. I will even put a whole box of Bisquick into it, because the bugs seem to like stuff like that. Some people put their dry goods in the freezer, but my space is all taken up with real freezer stuff. If you happen to have an extra fridge or freezer, you can put your pantry items in there. Once you get started with those pantry containers, it really does look cool to have all your stuff containerized like that. For stuff that looks similar, I clip off the name of it from the package and tape it to the top or bottom of the container. You will have to clean out the whole pantry when you do this to get a fresh start. Good luck.

Had the same thing about 2 years ago and it was a nightmare. They would bore through unopened cardboard boxes, like you are experiencing and even through tupperware. I think they came in on a bag of pet food. I tried what you did and then some. This is what finally worked:

I had to throw away EVERYTHING in my pantry. The jars and cans I washed, but boxes and tupperware ALL were tossed. Then I had to wash down everything - top of shelf as well as underside.

Finally, I have had an ongoing hunt for large jars. I put cardboard products, ie grains, etc. in these jars when I get them home. Stuff like cake mix I put in zip lock bags. It may seem overkill, but after going through all that work and expense of tossing food, I'm good with it.

And no more moths.

OMG, that would drive me crazy! I remember growing up, my grandmother had a problem with this. She used to yell at us for not closing boxes/packages all the way. She ended up putting everything in a ziploc or plastic container AFTER getting things under control w/a thorough cleaning w/hot soapy water and a thorough drying. Lwwt it dry for a day, don't put things back too soon, or they will come right back. When I was little, I remember eating pancakes and seeing a few of those tiny bugs in them..LOL!

Good luck to you!

C., I have the same problem on and off. They seem to get into food that is left open in your pantry. When cleaning it out check things like cereal boxes and oatmeal. I put as much as I can into Tupperware the minute I get it or open it. It is a bit pricey, but you can probably find the same type of items at Walmart or Target. They are tall containers designe to put cereal, flour, sugar and things of the like in them. This way the moths cant get in there. Sometimes they come from the store so you have no choice but to bring them home. If possible, open all cardboard boxed items when you bring them home.
And least but not least clean out the pantry as often as you can. I hate doing it and its so time cosuming, but it has to be done.
Hope this helps. Good luck!!

We had moths in our garage, so they are a different type, but we FINALLY got rid of them with this thing from Ace Hardware (I only found it there) - I'm not sure what it's called, but it's near the aisle with insecticides, etc. It's like an A-frame tent thats all sticky inside, and you stick this "phermone" thing inside to attract the moths, and there were hundreds of them stuck to the sticky part, and after a year they finally gave up. It's worth a try.

I'm having the same issue. The only thing I know to do is freeze extra flour, rice, grains, etc. Growing up my parents always kept those things in the freezer (deep freeze) to prevent the moths. Our freezer isn't big enough so I'm hoping a space bag will save my 20 lb. flour bag. So far, so good.