I went to my pantry to get a bag of rice out the other day and there were moths all in it. YUCK! I've never had this problem before, and I can't afford an exterminator. Does anyone know of something cheap I can buy to keep them out of my closet? How do they even get in?
I think that the can get in because the eggs survive the food processing steps at the factories. This website has a lot of comments about pantry moths and some of them seem to have some really good ideas. I like the suggestions posted by Nita. Good luck!Log In
I had them last winter - I had to throw out about 10 packets of soup and rice. I also had the larvae crawling across the ceiling - obviously my moths were traveller moths! I've seen a lot of little balls that look like cotton wool on the shelves in the cupboard, so I've cleared those away, just in case. I'll try the bay leaves, and the sticky traps. We've had to use them through the summer anyway, because there have been so many flies. Glad it's not just me - I was getting paranoid!
Not had this problem, thankfully, but found this webpage that has quite a few tips and products that you can use to get rid of these pests: Log In
The Bay leaves generally work pretty well for pantry pests. Another you want to keep an eye out for is a small black beetle that can survive to hatch out in dog biscuits, flour, pastas and rice. Of course, it's best to keep all of these items sealed in containers, and check the products before using them. If they've been there long enough, they produce a sort of sawdust looking debris. Yuck!
Oh my goodness, I've had those as well. I'm off to the store to buy even more containers. I'm going to emerge from my winter chrysallis a lot slimmer, because after reading all this, I'm sticking to food I can keep in the fridge, I think. I'm going to try the bay leaves though - heck, I'll try anything!
Oh yuck. Too bad. I've heard that if you soak a cotton ball with eucalyptus oil and refresh it once a week, you should keep them away (mice too!). But the key is that you need to remember to refresh your cotton ball or else it won't work. Also, you need a fair amount of cotton balls in the pantry to keep the moths away. Sorry this happened to you. You also have to clean everything and throw anything and everything away that is infested, or the cotton balls won't help.
The exact same thing happened to my mom with the larvae crawling on her ceiling. We think they came from a box of cereal. We had to take all the food out of her pantry, throw out what was not in cans and bug bomb her home. That was the only way to get rid of them. Yes, it is gross. How you were able to get rid of them, too, SEA81.
I occasionally get moths, they come from my parrot's bird seed. They die off from natural causes as long as there isn't a lot of them (if there's a lot then they end up breeding) but when I've had an infestation of them I've vacuumed them up and I've set out traps - they drown in water and they're also attracted to wine. If I put a new bag of bird seed in the freezer and freeze it for about 48 hours I don't get any moths though, so I just have to remember to do that.
We just leave tablets of camphor in our cupboards and shelves. They smell good and keep the moths and other pests out. Since camphor evaporates with exposure you need to replace in them often. They keep ants and beetles away too. Tight containers are quite helpful too.
Thankfully this is not something I have experience with and I hope I never do. I have issues with bugs in my food. I mean unless I put them there - which happens sometimes ( I have odd friends and they are horrible influences).
We had a problem with weevils once. Started putting everything in glass or in plastic bins. That way if eggs happened to be in something, the outbreak would be contained. That's another issue with packaged food - ugh!
I think they can grow inside the bag itself, it might not have anything to do with your closet. I had a couple of bags of rice that I hadn't even opened and were in my pantry and when I finally opened them and poured some out I saw a few black specs in them. I originally assumed some wild rice had gotten mixed in. However when I looked closer they were little bugs. Grossed me the heck out and I wouldn't eat rice for a while after that. I guess this is fairly common though if you have a bag that's been sitting around for a while even it is unopened.
I haven't had to deal with moths but I have had grain weevils ruin a big bag of flour that I bought to bake bread with. It sucks because my daughter loves my bread, so I got out the yeast and all the ingredients and then when I got to the flour -bugs galore. I had to throw out several pounds of flour. What a waste.
