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Food Moths

C

Choc

Well-Known Member
arrrrrgh!! they are everywhere :mad:

what can i do (i have already put all my grains in closed containers) my flatmates haven't though... but the moths don't seem to be breeding/eating anywhere obvious. also they even manage to get to my rice etc through my glass containers anyway :confused:

i hoover them away most of the time but they are still in the majority... i despair, please help?
 
i would have thought it highly unlikely to be the moths themselves as they have no mouth parts and certainly would not have made it thro a glass container.
Having said that, it might be that the rice was already contaminated with the eggs which have made it thro the larval stage.
As ever Mrs M's advice is dead sound, but it may be easier to ground zero all opened grains/cereals/beans in the kitchen, seal it off and let off one of those chemical 'bombs', making sure that all uncovered work surfaces/ plates/cutlery etc are washed thoroughly afterwards.
Otherwise you could find yourself eating larva, which if you're not rehearsing for 'I'm A Celebrity Get Me ..' could be an unpleasant thought, tho unlikely to be fatal or indeed particularly harmful.
 
The eggs are already in the flour when you buy it. I suggest you shift out the unsightly bugs, if you can't deal with the concept of extra protein. Or, throw it on the compost bin if you really can't deal with it. There isn't any need for food to go to waste if you can help it. When you buy new just put the bag into the freezer for a couple of days to kill them off. Then seal in an air-tight container.
 
thanks for your advise. i am pleased to hear that it is not dangerous to eat the infected food because to be honest i have chucked out a lot of food in the past and it doesn't help really. now i resume of washing the lentils and pasta and rice before i cook the stuff...though i hate it in porridge oats or muesli... :mad:

however i think i have discoverd the source of evil anyway. basically, since my flatemates girlfriend moved in who is ...on a special diet...that requires her basically to stock nearly all the grains that brixton whole foodstore stocks into her own shelf. and it is all unprotected. now i counted one and one together and realised that it is since she is here that we have got a real food moths epidemic. so there. they are in holiday at the moment but i had a look and nearly all bags of beans etc are colonised...i think i will wait till they are back before taking any action though...

mrs magpie the freezer hint is great btw thanks. and yep, they look exactly like the indian moth in the pic. grrrrr

:)
 
Oh poor you.

I had food moths once (eventually traced to an old packet of oatcakes), it was vile :(
 
I had these moths once. I did the freezer thing and cleaned out every cupboard in the kitchen. You know those extra holes they put inside kitchen units? They're for food moths to pupate in. I had to dig a maggot out of about 50 percent of them.
 
Indian meal moths lay about 500 eggs at a time...Herob/Sherob is right...the larvae wander off till they find a place to pupate....usually in the nooks and crannies of a food cupboard......There are pheromones available to attract the adults into a sticky trap but frankly, I haven't a clue where to buy them. I'd freeze all dry foodstuffs, empty your cupboards and use insecticide spray.......
 
Orangesanlemons said:
Chuck it all away, nuke the site from orbit
Click to expand...
Hey, that's my street you're talking about! :p

I hope these beasts don't spread up the street as I have loads of cereals, seeds, pulses etc. And I HATE moths. :(
 
IntoStella said:
Hey, that's my street you're talking about! :p

I hope these beasts don't spread up the street as I have loads of cereals, seeds, pulses etc. And I HATE moths. :(
Click to expand...

see you better be friendly to me otherwise easy game to set you up...could also add some mice to pass on to you guys... ;)

oh no :mad: of course i didn't realise i have to clean the cupboards and use insect killer etc too...how boring yaaawn!

thanks again for all your advise it was much appreciated. :)
 
Mrs Magpie said:
schwartzrotgoldmacht blau
black red gold makes pissed? :confused:
Click to expand...

you got it :) it is good innit? and you are smart for figuring it out so quickly...it is from a song from trio (i had no space for a bracket quote). i love it.
 
I've got them as well! I think from a bag of risotto rice I bought in the Atlantic Rd deli in Brixton. Buggery bollocks.

Prepares to clean out cupboards and use industrial quantities of Raid.
 
i think the epidemic got much better in our flat already. to be honest we didn't do any cleaning of cupboards just proper storing of food.

but this seems to have done the trick. i have also put stuff in the freezer to make sure to extinguish any lavae. it is definitely better now.
 
I was directed here from a thread I started (Really should have done a search like it says in the FAQ).

Thanks for the link Mrs Magpie and thanks everyone else for all the advice.

...now to sort out the field mice :D

(any suggestions?)
 
You wouldn't have found it via the search because it was one of the 17,000 threads that had been accidentally wafted into limbo. I knew it was there though and used a butterfly net to bring it back.
 
scarecrow said:
I was directed here from a thread I started (Really should have done a search like it says in the FAQ).

Thanks for the link Mrs Magpie and thanks everyone else for all the advice.

...now to sort out the field mice :D

(any suggestions?)
Click to expand...
Field mice? They'll be house mice unless you really are a scarecrow that lives in a field...btw, I love the Scot's word for scarecrow...tattybogle.
 
scarecrow said:
I was directed here from a thread I started (Really should have done a search like it says in the FAQ).

Thanks for the link Mrs Magpie and thanks everyone else for all the advice.

...now to sort out the field mice :D

(any suggestions?)
Click to expand...


Get a cat?
 
Mrs Magpie said:
Field mice? They'll be house mice unless you really are a scarecrow that lives in a field...btw, I love the Scot's word for scarecrow...tattybogle.
Click to expand...

I'm describing them as field mice because they're small and brown rather than huge and brown like rats. Is there a definable difference to field and house mice other than their chosen abode? Sorry, I don't want to sound arsey, I'm genuinely interested.

Back to the mouse 'problem'. My GF had been telling me for weeks that she had seen one and I thought she was winding me up. Then, about three days ago, I found a dead one on the kitchen floor and thought- Ha! problem gone - and then found a live one hours later that I have seen pretty much daily since!

Apart from seeing it out in the open, I haven't seen anything chewed or destroyed because of it's presence and I wondered how harmful it could actually be if it isn't carrying something like weils disease...

Tattybogle sounds a far better moniker than mine! :)

And a cat's out of the question. Not allowed in the tenancy agreement and doubly not allowed by the missus! :D
 
1. take away their food source, all stored food into jars or tupperwares or into the fridge. Reuse jars from pasta sauces, jam and stuff for cheapness, or check charity shops for storage jars. They can be good for tupperwaresas well, as can pound shops.
Wash up all dishes straight after the meal. Clean surfaces to remove crumbs. Hoover/clean the floor in the kitchen daily.

2. see if you can find the gaps they are entering through. This can be hard with mice, they can get through anywhere you can fit your little finger through. get permission from the landlord to block the holes. A can of expanding foam will be good for this, you won't need anything tougher for mice.

3. i don't think the sonic repellers work. I went for the cats option as a rodent repeller. However, you can give them a go, some people swear by them.
humane traps are worthless unless you're prepared to drive the mice 5 miles away daily. I would suggest you use a combination of traps and poision. Remove carcasses from traps as soon as possible so the mice don't learn to associate the trap with death.
 
Unlike the incessant streams of the pointless moth that are bothering me, I don't really want to kill the mouse. I don't particularly want to drive it out if it isn't causing any forseeable problems. If anyone can highlight what else may be in store then my opinion may change accordingly.

As for blocking up holes, I think it would be pretty futile. I'm on the ground floor of a victorian house converted into two flats. That means there's probably a quadrillion of access points under the finely varnished floorboards. You can't use expanding foam on any visible surfaces that are finished, for obvious asthetic reasons.
 
i seriously doubt you have one mouse there will be a lot. i thought I had one or 2 rats, it turned out to be about a dozen.
 
on nice to see this old thread revived again :)

i hope that our mice are only mice and not rats! luckily no food moths seen recently. i don't enjoy remembering the moths invasion we used to have when the thread was started.
 
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