Discussion Board

Hi everyone~

Well, the pest people have already sprayed once for what they told me were clothes moths, but the pesky little things have returned, so I am surmising the problem might be in my pantry...they have been all over the house, so it's hard to pinpoint.

My question to all of you is what do you keep your various rices, flours, etc. in? I'm going to be cleaning out the pantry today, chucking many things and starting over, but this time I will be prepared with the correct containers. Someone at the pest company told me that plastic bags and cardboard containers won't keep them out and even something like Tupperware wasn't good enough.

Anyone know more about this and have advice?

Thanks much

We might have the complete vegan diet here!

Seriously, I keep all flour in the freezer and all rice, beans, and miscellaneous in large screw cap jars in the pantry. I don't buy rice very far ahead, so maybe I've just been lucky not to have critters.

I am, however, waging a losing war with fruit flies this month. I'm thinking of giving up and trying to do my junior high genetics experiment again. Or telling people that they are easier to keep than goldfish. Or that they are the new trend in cat toys.

Yes, throw out everything if they are bad enough. We once got a terrible infestation from bulk popcorn.

You'll need to vacuum your cabinets, paying special attention to the crevices.

I store most of my grains in glass 'canning' jars, either the regular kind or the old fashioned with a rubber gasket and a hinge. You can sometimes find these in the dollar store.

I also asked my local deli to give me the really large glass jars they get pickles and condiments in.

I have quite the collection, and my family usually tries to buy me some every Christmas, too.

I also use the plastic container that my mixed rice comes in from Costco. These are square, so they fit well together on the shelf.

I had a problem with those about 2 months ago. They are so small, almost all wings. I didn't know where they were coming from until I remembered I had a plastic container of dry dog food. I had forgotten to throw it away after I lost one of my dogs in April, 05. When I took it outside to dump it, there were so many of those moths inside, they were clinging to the container, didn't want to leave it. I haven't seen one for a while now. I guess if you have it in flour or it is in the cupboard, you might try the airtight containers.
Now this is funny, he was the last dog I have had that is on processed dog chow. All my dogs now eat BARF, bones and raw food. So when I go to the store now, I buy meat for my dogs & they get some scraps of rice, potatoes & veggies but their main diet is meat. Once I was in the grocery store & I had a bunch of packs of turkey necks in my basket. As I was putting them out to be rang up, someone asked me what I used them for. I said I feed them to my dogs. She then said she used them in gravy. I replied I was a vegan & didn't eat meat. I was given the usual disgusted look.
If you have never seen a BARF raised dog, they have beautiful coat, no allergies, gorgeous teeth & they are healthy. They are meant to eat meat as their intestines are shorter than ours. They have the teeth for ripping & tearing. We dont. Makes sense to me.

I've told people that, too--that our bodies are not equipped to eat and digest meat. they don't seem to care, lol!

I had those darn moths this summer. I had a lot of bags of rice and beans and pasta that should have been used a long time ago. so I think it must take awhile for those things to hatch. there was a little round hole in a bag of rice, I suppose it was the month going out of the bag. the spaghetti (unopened) had dead moths in it. the beans looked okay so I kept those. my cabinet got a good cleaning! now I've been buying the 1 or 2 pound packages of rice so it's used up more quickly. and I rinse it before cooking it!

by the way, there none in the sugar, which had been there a while. hubby uses it in the morning in his coffee. they can't live in that. nor in the flour. I think it's little bugs that are more likely to be in the flour but I never have those.

I keep my rice in the fridge. That way I don't have to worry about anything getting to it.
But there are other things that those moths love.

A while ago, I purchased a book off QVC, Grandma's Kitchen Wisdom. It has so much stuff in it on how to get rid of creepy, crawly, flying things, naturally. I was reading up on the moths, that is where I learned they love pet food.

Yeah, it is funny how people dont listen to you. Dogs are carnivores, we aren't.

but I dont have enough space to do the same with all my dry good. Mostly I use those gallon pickle jars to store everything in. We go through beans quite fast...Ive never had a problem with those. they do however store well in teh freezer.

about the fruit flies...here are some fruit fly traps ideas.

make a mixture of cider vinegar, dish soap and sugar and set it around your house in little coke caps. A little amount works as well as a larger amount...

Wine also works fantastic, but I figure most of you dont have any hanging around..(I do). Im currently using this myself...I have part of a bottle that really just didn't taste all that great! the fruit flies love it more than they did the vinegar concoction.

hth,
Donna

I have some old wine and, for that matter, some cider dregs. But how do I trap them once I've attracted them? They move so fast, and seem to have avoidance programs that the Air Force should study.

Or do you add the detergent to the wine - does that make them sink in the liquid? I like the idea of the wine since the cats will leave it alone.

I can't wait to go home and try this. Even though I've sealed up all food, they seem to be surviving on something. Our house has enough half-finished projects to worry the relatives on Thanksiving without having bugs as well, lol!

Anne, do you have a compost pail? If so, they commonly come from their. People get around that by freezing their fruit and vegetable scraps while waiting to take them outside.

We have pest people spray the outside of our house every other month and they told us that we were watering our house plants too much, that the little devils were in the dirt and on the plants.

So, I stopped watering as often (poor things, I really dry them out now...this never was a problem until I moved into this one area of Northern California), plus I bought a can of bug spray (Schultz brand) and I spray the dirt and hit the top and bottom of the leaves. It was really bad last year...I'd spray the dirt and you could just see them scurrying out...all these little dead bodies on the ground afterward.

You MUST spray often though...everytime I water (which about every 1-1/2 to 2 weeks now...as I said, my little plants are wilty by the time I water them...don't like doing it, but it's the only way in addition to the bug spray, to keep these little buggers under control!!

We go wine tasting and during the harvest crush season, those little fruit flies are EVERYWHERE...I wouldn't recommend leaving wine out...that seems to exacerabate the problem.

wow, I didn't know that about the house plant dirt! I thought they came in (eggs) on fruit so when I've had a problem I've washed the fruit. just have problems a couple of times in the summer. next time I'll check the house plant dirt.

course I hope there won't BE a next time, lol!

Yes, the compost is kept in the freezer, moved all fruit into fridge, we have no houseplants due to a power outage last winter. No new fruit flies are immigrating into the house, and the population is declining, but a small population is hanging on and I need them gone by Thanksgiving.

I know how to attract them, but not how to trap them once attracted. We'll see how the cider detergent mix works today...

We acquired these guys from a batch of plums that I left at room temperature to ripen last month.

They hang out in the bathroom in the drain now, which is really disgusting.

Forgot to mention that...it has to do with standing water too, the flies increasing.

thanks again wannabe. Anne, that's awful! guess they have taken up a winter residence in your house. seems they have moved in and are breeding. we had them one summer when we had guests--son and family staying and other relatives visiting. what a mess. I covered some food items I'd normally let set out on the counter with a glass cake dome. couldn't leave anything out for them to land on. I'd brought in bananas and some other fruit they may have arrived with.

you'll get rid of those "pesky things" as my grandma used to call flying bugs. good luck!