Evil weevils

angela110660

They are not harmful but they are not nice to have. Empty everything away is my suggestion and clean and dry the whole shelf/cupboard. Wash out any containers you stored things in then replenish your stocks and keep it all in tupperware like containers - no loose bags.

barjam_2

we had them a couple of years ago from a bag of flour from asda
they are called psosids they get every where i dont think they are harmful but it tends to put you off:eek: enviromental health came out to us and the phrase he used was he was gonna bomb the kitchen:rotfl: we had to leave the house for a couple of hours it only took him 10 mins

might be worth you phoning e,health for advice

ps i caught a couple in sample bottle and gave them to the lad he later phoned up confirming that they were psosids

hope the info helps a little bit

Sunshine_and_Roses

Thanks for your replies. I was starting to feel like a real scummy slob that looks like I never do any cleaning! I can't believe that they managed to get into my overpriced Barbrantia storage jar, what a waste of money they were.

boo81

my mum always calls them weevils and strangely she has found them recently in her flour even though she keeps them in containers.

Anyone know of large packet of flour-sized containers that can be bought cheaply?

Sunshine_and_Roses

Is it better to keep the flour in the bags inside the airtight containers, or empty them out? Does this make a difference?

Sunshine_and_Roses

Great - just started making a cake and they were in an unopened bag of sugar as well! Is it safe to carry on or shall I just bin it all?

aurorahelios

They won't harm you but, would you feel comfortable eating the end product?

dronid

Not to freak anyone out about travelling and food.

I will say that when you travel abroad particularly the far east - Thailand etc often the flour in most baked goods will have had something like this in them. My sister, who lives there, has ended up taking a robust attitude towards them and when baked they don't seem to cause a problem.

Probably wouldn't do it myself - I have some issues!

Remember red food colouring is Cochineal which is derived from the Cochineal insect find out more at http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cochineal

aurorahelios

boo81 wrote: »

my mum always calls them weevils and strangely she has found them recently in her flour even though she keeps them in containers.

Lots of people call them weevils but real weevils are bigger and nasty looking things, they are also most likely found at the flour mill stage and very uncommon in the home environment. If eggs or as few as one or two psosids are present in the flour when it is put in to the container, then they will soon multiply. The other possibility is that the containers are not airtight, these are tiny creatures and can get into the tiniest of spaces!

Sunshine_and_Roses

aurorahelios wrote: »

They won't harm you but, would you feel comfortable eating the end product?

Yes that is the thing! Just so annoying that they were all unopened packets and it will cost me a couple of quid to replace them all, never mind about new storage containers. Any thoughts on whether to store them in the bags inside the containers, or empty them out?

Itching like crazy now..... :eek: