Evil weevils

Penny-Wise_4

We are skint this month. Decided to eat contents of freezer & storecupboard & not shop for the whole of the month.

I made some bread today. I keep my flour in a sealed kilner jar (thankfully) & had just enough to make some bread. When i went to top up my flour jar with my unopened packet of flour it was inhabited. (oooh i'm so itchy writing about this)

Had to check & disinfect all though the storecupboard & found the nasties in everything that wasn't sealed (& some that was).

Now we have no pasta, no flour, no breakfast cereal (thankfully we usually eat toast - except we don't have much bread left). We've had to throw loads of stuff away, like coconut milk powder, stuffing mix, rice, pulses - loads of stuff - half my cupboard is gone.

The thing is, I usually check before i use anything just to make sure it is not walking around :eek: . I've never had weevils before, never even seen them before - but i'm always checking just in case.

How fast do these things spread?

I made 4 lasagnes last night, ate one, froze 3. There were no weevils in the lasagne sheets, I shook the boxes out to get all the little broken bits out and no tiny crawly things came out. Today the half empty box had some in. :eek: (do weevils freeze well?). I keep loads of stuff in plastic tubs & today they had weevils crawling all over them, thankfully not in them. I know i would have noticed this before. Did they all decide to move house & leave the bag of flour to find more food today? PLEASE TELL ME WE'VE NOT BEEN GETTING 'EXTRA PROTEIN' FOR WEEKS!!!!

How many calories in a weevil?

Jay-Jay_4

I wouldn't worry about anything you've cooked or consumed before now, you'll just drive yourself mad.

They do migrate and can get into sealed things (I found some inside some individually sealed fairy cakes within a tupperware container!) so don't be fooled by unopened packets :eek:

Sorry.... that prob wasn't what you wanted to hear

sophiesmum_2

I once found some in an unopened bag of porridge oats,thought I was seeing things when the oats seemed to be moving. Couldn't eat porridge for months afterwards, and the little !!!!!!s had got everywhere, had to have a major chuck out same as you and it broke my little OS heart throwing good stuff away.:eek:
I found the odd one or two for about a week afterwards but same as you until then no sign of them.
Sorry though, couldnt tell you how many cals in a weevil, or whether they freeze well :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:
Good luck with the weevil busting.
sophiesmum

wizzkid_3

We had the local rat catcher from the council round a few (15) years ago about these little darlings. He said that they did not spread disease and recommended just what you have done for my own piece of mind as much as anything. I had already done that. If you know exactly where they have come from you could complain to the store, but usually by the time you realise they are every where! Aparently it is the glue in paper packets that they really love!

If you are not a vegetarian I wouldn't worry! LOL!

elisebutt65

Aaaahhh - I remember weevils. Used to get them in our bread all the time when we live abroad and we were kiddies. Mum just made us eat it regardless - LOL Like wheatgerm, only crunchier!!!:rotfl: :rotfl: :rotfl:

Penny-Wise_4

Yeah...not helpful Jay Jay _pale_

Nearly clicked the 'thanks' button then - but don't feel like now.

That's the other half of the storecupboard going in the bin then. :rolleyes: No seriously we've scrutinised the contents of every tub in there & are pretty sure we've not kept anything thats moving. We took everything out of the cupboard, disinfected the cupboard, checked over everything & disinfected all tubs before putting back in the cupboard. Will be searching through again before cooking though.

If we find any more we'll be going through the whole itchy process again. Any better ways of eliminating them? Can't throw everything away, or we'll starve. Not going shopping, no matter what the evil weevils did.........(any OS weevil recipes? ships biscuits? oooooh i've thrown the flour away :rolleyes:)

OH says when we do go shopping next month & buy more flour we should nuke it for 20secs to kill any eggs, etc. Would this work or would it ruin the flour? I think my mum used to nuke flour for a bit to warm it up before she made bread...

Jay-Jay_4

Well if you don't mind eating eggs then you might as well just cook it as normal.......

I think that the problem has probably been eliminated now. It's usually one item that contaminates the other and as you've got rid of everything then there's no reason for them to return.

When I had them (from bird seed) I squirted my cupboards with a residual intectiside (Raid spray) and left it empty for a week before cleaning it again and restocking it.

thriftlady_2

I've had a weevil infestation just this week funnily enough.They originated from a tub of brown rice. They are really small, so small you wouldn't notice them in food you were eating.

I chucked everything they were in and put unopened packets in the freezer for 24 hours. I now store all my flour in the freezer for at least 24 hours, this is supposed to kill any bugs. You can put all dry stuff like lentils, beans, pasta, flour, popcorn( it's supposed to pop fluffier if it's been frozen) , barley in the freezer and use them from frozen.

susank

When you buy in more flour - try and organize to put the bags in a different place this time till the little beggers have disappeared - guess what I am checking this morning! I had them too and moved the new flour to a new location.

Flimber

Found this in our garage t'other day. Best guess I could come up with - after an internet search - was a Strawberry Weevil. Before the internet search I could only point up to to Mars in amazement. Weird creature...

babe_ruth_3

Thought I would spend an hour with other money savers but Iv'e changed my mind and am now going to clean out kitchen cupboards - just in case:eek: