Invaders

[Ferretfancy]

Has anybody experienced this problem? In the last couple of weeks I've been sorting out some ingredients in preparation for Christmas. I opened a partly used packet of flaked almonds and a small moth flew out, revealing a handful of pupae in the residue. Subsequently the same thing happened with some rice, in fact the moth was fluttering inside a sealed jar, so it must have hatched inside. We have now thrown away anything not sealed.
The moths are very tiny, resembling clothes moths, and it seems that they are only attracted to dry carbohydrates, things like raisins and fruit are not affected.
I know that this is perhaps an odd topic, it's hardly a good advert for my kitchen! but I wonder if anybody here can cast light. I would not wish to use sprays with foodstuffs around, even if they are in sealed jars.

[vinteuil]

... I think our umslopogaas might be the person to ask - you could perhaps send him a PM?

[umslopogaas]

I will do some research. There are moths that attack "stored products", but its too long ago that I knew about them, and when I retired I sold off most of my text books. But as soon as I've finished my dinner, I'll get on the case.

[Bryn]

Most likely Plodia interpunctella, the Indian mealmoth. It is an increasingly common problem species in recent years. Many decades ago, when I worked in insect pest research, some idiotic pen pusher introduced dichlorvos into the store room where the bran fed to the locusts we were working on was kept. This was in an attempt to deal with the P. interpunctella which were thriving on the bran in the storeroom. Months of locust research has to be junked.

[umslopogaas]

Thanks Bryn, that sounds pretty much spot on.

Dichlorvos!? That would have put the pesticide cat amongst the insect pigeons. Excellent insecticide, but does need to be used with caution.

My googlings have only come up with 'Angoumois grain moth', or Sitotroga cerealella, which I assume is the north American equivalent, since all the information seems to have come from over there. But yes, whatever species is involved, its a grain moth.

What to do? Two things. First, find the source where they are breeding, and destroy it (by this I mean not the breeding in your pantry, but where are the moths that fly in and infest your pantry coming from? Second, protect the pantry with a physical barrier to prevent any residual moths flying in: this barrier could be any fine mesh cloth screen that is porous enough to allow air to circulate, but not so porous that moths can get through.

And although you obviously dont want to spray insecticide round your pantry, a can of fly spray would be useful to spray down any dubious looking moths that are flying around outside.

[Don Petter]

Ff,

Have you thought of turning a Christmas setback to your own advantage?

A pretty little flight of crystallised moths spreading across the icing on the cake could be the talk of the neighbourhood.

[Old Grumpy]

We recently found a bottle of rosehip cordial at the back of a cupboard - that sounds nice, I thought and poured some mixed with sparkling water. It wasn't (nice) - I then checked the date - August 2008!

No moths though...


OG

[arancie33]

Oh, familiar! I have met the little darlings too. Making bread one day, a moth struggled and fluttered out of the dry mix. Oh, sez me, must have fallen in when I wasn't looking. Then another, and another. I checked the flour bag and found neat round holes in it where larvae must have exited - my moths were the ones that chose to stay.

It happened again with a different flour, retailer and wholesaler. It seemed somewhere eggs had got into the flour and were happy completing their life cycles in a warm, dry, nutrient rich environment. All I got was some money back and the warm fuzzies that come from knowing I had probably eaten some added protein.

[amateur51]

Aeons ago in a London department store someone had the bright idea of importing and selling lime flowers. Large wicker baskets of these pungent citrussy flowers were displayed together with scoops and bags, the idea being that customers would purchase them as an unusual adjunct topot pourri.

All went well and they were fairly popular until a customer returned a bag, complaining quite loudly about the wriggly creatures that she had not bargained for - caterpillars!

Under the warm lighting the caterpillars duly completed their life cycle and lo! The air was filling with moths.

And in the department next door, which sold delightful & rather expensive silk scarves (yes that department store ), a groundswell of panic was developing

[Flosshilde]

I had a similar problem with nuts - kept in a jar, I realised that there was rather a lot of crumbs & some cobwebby stuff. I told the shop I bought them from & they said it was moths. I don't think I got any money back, though

(I once bought a rather lovely wool rug in Malta. When I got home I didn't use it immediately, but kept it in a bag in the spare room. One day I noticed a lot of strange things on the ceiling, which turned out to be empty cocoons - of clothes moths, I assume. My partner had a similar problem with a goatskin drum he brought back from Aftica, and some beanbags)

[Ferretfancy]

Thanks to everyone for the helpful replies, it's obviously a fairly common phenomenon. I think that I have now sealed off any more entry points for the little blighters to get in, if any appear now they will be late hatchlings doomed to starve. Meanwhile my Christmas cake is slowly cooking, filling the house with a delightful aroma. I've decided to have a non iced version this year.I'm due for a gall bladder removal in early January, a bit of a bind because I will need to avoid fatty foods in the meantime. but Good nosh will still be on the menu!

[Despina dello Stagno]

I often buy a Single Cloucester cheese from a maker who had better remain nameless, but who is perhaps most well-known for supplying the cheeses that are rolled down Cooper's Hill. https://www.google.co.uk/search?q=ch...2&ved=0CD0QsAQ
Quite frequently they contain cheese mites, which are friendly enough and, apart from reducing the cheese to a fine sawdust, are not unpleasantly obtrusive. Are they a different form of invader to the weevil, which is a stock villain in many a naval diary or Patrick O'Brian fable?

[umslopogaas]

Very different. Mites are arachnids, closely related to spiders but much smaller, and have eight legs. Weevils are insects in the section of the beetle phylum (Coleoptera) called the Curculionidae, and are known as curculionids. Mites are tiny, you'd probably never notice them unless you had a magnifying glass. Weevils are insect size, even the smallest is much bigger than a mite.

If you find what looks like a very large mite, its probably a tick, which lives on blood. Avoid.