Pantry moths | Imamother

amother

Cobalt

Mon, Oct 10 2016, 11:29 am

Did anyone ever have pantry moths? I discovered them 3 months ago coming from a cabinet where I stored beanes, cleaned out my cabinets and I am still finding them in random places in the kitchen. I keep all my food in sealed containers or the freezer and I dont see them in any specific cabinet, just randomly on walls, counters....

FranticFrummie

Mon, Oct 10 2016, 11:34 am

The only way to get rid of them, is Pesach level cleaning. Throw out every grain product you have, and any dried fruit or nuts, too.

Moths can lay eggs in the cracks of your cabinets, so you'll need to take everything out and spray straight bleach into every single space, even if you think it's painted shut.

If you have cobweb spiders, do not remove their webs! Let the spiders take care of any stray moths flying around.

Unfortunately, I have WAY too much experience with the beasties.

ETA: You can bring moths home from the grocery store. As soon as you bring home your grain, nut, or dried fruit groceries, store them in the freezer for at least 3 days, preferably a week. This will kill off any hitchhikers.

Last edited by FranticFrummie on Mon, Oct 10 2016, 11:37 am; edited 1 time in total

imasinger

Mon, Oct 10 2016, 11:35 am

They can be a pain to get rid of.

Recheck and reclean the cabinet. Toss anything that has webbing or looks compromised. Sometimes, they go for strange choices. Any grains. Boxes of mac n cheese. Even chocolate, depending on the species.

You have time on your side. They usually go away in the winter.

FranticFrummie

Mon, Oct 10 2016, 11:38 am

imasinger wrote:

They usually go away in the winter.

Unless you live in a warm climate with mild winters. I grew up in California, and my mom was doing constant battle with the moths. Here in Israel, it's the same thing.

amother

Gold

Mon, Oct 10 2016, 1:47 pm

We just had them! It was miserable.
We did pesach level clean and beyond. We threw out EVERYTHING that wasn't in the fridge and washed all our dishes. Threw out all disposables (straws, containers).
It got better but didn't go all the way away. We were living on only refrigerated food and I did no baking etc for over a month and we still had them.
Finally we hired an exterminator. Moved everything out of the kitchen and had him drill behind the cabinets to reach the hidden ones.

Bh Bh and bli ayin hara they are gone and we are settled.

We tried all the cleaning, setting out Bay leaves, Apple cider vinegar, traps, tea tree oil none of them worked.

imasinger

Mon, Oct 10 2016, 1:50 pm

amother wrote:

I also have them I threw out all of my opened packages of food can they get into closed packages?

Yes. Anything cardboard, like boxes of pasta, but I think not sealed plastic.

amother

Gold

Mon, Oct 10 2016, 2:58 pm

I read that the female can bore holes through plastic and then create a seal with some kind of sticky emission. I don't know how reliable the information was but we took it to heart and got rid of all plastic/ ziplock

FranticFrummie

Mon, Oct 10 2016, 3:03 pm

amother wrote:

I've found many holes in plastic bags. They chew their way through the bottom, so when you open the box and look at the top of the bag it looks just fine. Take out the bag and check the bottom for pinhole size holes. They are very tiny, and easy to miss. The LOVE cake mix. Sad

MitzadSheini

Mon, Oct 10 2016, 4:07 pm

FranticFrummie wrote:

Unless you live in a warm climate....... Here in Israel, it's the same thing.

That's why I think it is "minhag Yerushalayim" (all Israel) to keep as much as possible in the freezer. Certainly rice, flour and so on.

MagentaYenta

Mon, Oct 10 2016, 4:39 pm

I lived in CA for many years and never experienced pantry moths. I know folks here in the PNW have problems with them as well. I don't refrigerate rice or flours. All are in plastic containers or in Mason jars.

BayMom

Mon, Oct 10 2016, 5:13 pm

amother wrote:

I also have them I threw out all of my opened packages of food can they get into closed packages?

They can get into those clear dried fruit containers (like for example the ones Klein's Naturals packs them in) even though they're shut tight.

Miri7

Mon, Oct 10 2016, 5:23 pm

I've had the best luck using big mason jars. Or similar jars that seal. Getting a lot of the big ones was an investment, but it saves a lot of time. Whatever cereal/grain/dried fruit/nuts that comes into the house that we are not using in the next 24 hours or so gets put into the jars or the freezer. In between, I can wash the mason jars out well, and feel pretty confident that those things aren't hiding in the seams like they did on my "airtight" plastic containers.

rachel6543

Mon, Oct 10 2016, 8:40 pm

I remember this happened when I was a kid in my mom's kitchen! The moths had infested everything and especially loved the cereal boxes! My mom threw most of the pantry.

Luckily, I haven't too many issues with moths and other bug infestations in my own kitchen. I'm careful to keep everything sealed and I use plastic containers, ziplock bags and store things in the frig or freezer when I have the extra room. Plus I make my kid sweep and wipe his food mess daily. That helps a lot also.

Good luck on getting rid of them them! And I agree with FranticFrummie's advice. That should get rid of the issue. That's basically what my mom did when she had the moth invasion when I was a kid.