Dear Moms,
I am hoping that someone out there will give me some insight on how to eradicate these little moths that have invaded my food pantry. They lay larvae that look like maggots, which seem to "eat" through cardboard and have even managed to get under the lid of pasta sauce! I have tried regular moth balls and cedar chips, which apparently only work to get rid of clothing moths?! A couple of months ago, we took everything out of the pantry and bug bombed with the door shut; which got rid of them for a short while. But now they are back and driving us crazy! They aren't anywhere else in the house except the kitchen, and mainly the pantry. I can't afford to keep throwing away food that they've invaded, but I also cannot afford to hire pest control (as I am a single Mom on a limited income)! I will try anything! Please advise!
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.
Ester
Hi Cara,
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
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!
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 Cara,
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.
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
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.
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.
Hi Cara-
Yuck!! I periodically get the moths and it sucks!! I love the idea of the mint and lavendar, and will try that. What I've done in the past is the second I see one moth, I go to my pantry and look through everything to find the source. I get rid of that and then everytime I go into the kitchen I go into the pantry and see if there any any moths, then kill them. THe last time that happened, I actually got rid of them quickly. I feel for you & good luck!
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.
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 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 Aunt Ruth.
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.
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.
Cara,
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.
Tera
Hi Cara,
I feel your pain! I have had this infestation 2 times now but I think I finally have it under control. It requires a multi-armed approach.
Clean out EVERYTHINHG from your pantry. Throw away all of your dried goods, even if you don't see visibile infestation -- there may be eggs that are too small to see. The larva come in in bags of rice and flour, especially if you buy from nonchain grocery stores that stock a lot of imported grains and dried goods (they'ved turn up in all dried goods I bought from Valley Produce, so I only buy fresh produce from there now.) You can keep items in can and sealed glass bottles.
If you keep tea bags in your pantry, check them thoroughly. The little buggers get into sealed boxes and build cocoons between the bags. I salvage every individual bag I could and put them into ziploc bags, then threw away the boxes.
If your pantry has peg holes for adjustable shelves you will need to clean out each one individually with a toothpick or a metal turkey pin. My pantry holes were like one big catepillar condominium! My cousin painted into her holes to kill the left over eggs. I filled mine in with wood putty and installed pull out shelves (which I wanted anyway!).
Pull out every shelf in the pantry and clean each shelf, the sides, floor and roof thoroughly with a 50% bleach solution. Run the metal turkey pin around crevasses to try to scratch out the eggs. Either paint over or putty over the crevasses.
Check all of your dark cabinets in your kitchen. Take out everything -- inspect for catepillars, cocoons, moths, and clean everything the same way you cleaned the pantry.
Keep an eye on your ceiling and inside light fixtures -- catepillars hang out in these areas.
Get the Biosafe traps someone mentioned and change them every few weeks. These actually only trap the males (the contain female moth pheramones as attractants) but your goal is to stop them from procreating -- no sex, no eggs!
Kill every single moth you find!
This last step is VERY important: once you have eradicated the moths and catepillars and cleaned out everything, put everything in your pantry in individual rubbermaid (or similar) containers with tight, sealable lids. You can store several items together that are not likely to attract moths in larger containers, but make sure items like suger, flour, cornstarch, rice, potato flakes, and corn meal are each stored in individual containers. At least that way, if you bring in any unwanted hitchhikers at a later date, they'll be confined to one small container and you won't have to repeat the agony.
BTW, here's my funny story with the moths. My husband was studying abroad for a year while I held down the home front, working, commuting, and single parenting two teenagers (one who had turned into the infamous 16 yr old every-angry pod person who was now a foot taller and many muscular pounds heavier than I was!) My husband had left in June, and by the time March rolled around I was beat. I couldn't face the kind of cleaning I knew I had to tackle in order to be ready for Passover, and I was too tired to even think about organizing a seder. I told my husband (who was studying to be a Rabbi!) that I was just going to pass on the whole thing that year, and would even not have a seder unless someone happened to invite us over to theirs.
Well, God sent me a plague of moths! The next morning I opened my pantry and a virtual airforce of moths flew out -- there must have been several hundred of them, no exageration. Needless to say, I had to clean, and I specifically had to clean out all of the types of foods that you're not allowed to own over Passover -- the little buggers were in every package I owned of those sorts of foods -- even the sealed ones! Then, of course, I had to do the thorough cleaning I just described above. No sooner had I completed this cleaning, than I got calls from 5 different people inviting me and the kids to their seders!
Anyway, good luck with the moths. You have to be diligent, but you can eliminate them.
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.
Hi Cara,
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!