Evil weevils

Nomoneymummy_2

cuca wrote: »

I havent read all though the thread so I hope Im not repeating. I had a huge problem last year with indian meal moths. They are the most horrible things and hard to get shot of. They lay eggs in all your flour rice, dried foods etc and hatch to this most awful brown moths. these things are evil, coz if you try to swat one, it goes for you :eek: I had to chuck out nearly all my dried food last year coz the infestation was so bad - and I did find the nest in a bag of dried split peas...... It was as big as the bag and there were no peas left in it - only sand, web type nests and eggs!!!!

Im shuddering reading that... can quite happily deal with spiders and crawly things but moths quite franckly scare the !!!!! out of me!!!!!
That will keep me awake for weeks:D

ChapelGirl

Have you seen "Master and Commander?"

[Dinner in the officers' mess. The captain is inebriated, but asks apparently seriously]
Capt. Jack Aubrey: Do you see those two weevils doctor?
Dr. Stephen Maturin: I do.
JA: Which would you choose?
SM: [sighs annoyed] Neither; there is not a scrap a difference between them. They are the same species of Curculio.
JA: If you had to choose. If you were forced to make a choice. If there was no other response...
SM: [Exasperated] Well then if you are going to *push* me... [the doctor studies the weevils briefly] ...I would choose the right hand weevil; it has... significant advantage in both length and breadth.
[the captain thumps his fist in the table]
JA: There, I have you! Your completely dished! Do you not know that in the service...one must always choose the lesser of two weevils. :rotfl:

I think I am right in saying that often the weevils are already in the beans or whatever, as they hatch out from inside. Once they have escaped from their orginal packet into your cupboard they will get into absolutely anything that is not in a sealed plastic, glass or metal container, or in an unopened plastic packet. They can easily get into bags of flour, boxes of cereal etc. because they can creep round the folds in the bag, or bore a hole in the paper or card.

Don't forget to empty your hoover bag outside if you are hoovering them up, because they probably won't all be killed by being sucked up, and could make their way back out again, just with a bit of a headache!

I used to think that things like flour and dried beans had a limitless shelf-life, but in fact they lose their "goodness" just the same as any other food if you keep them for too long, and that gives longer time for the critters to hatch and multiply.

If you have any dried beans in the cupboard which have black marks on them, little holes or "empty" white patches pick them out and get rid of them, as there are passengers on board. It's usually not necessary to bin the whole lot, unless they are badly infested, but they are probably approaching their use-by date!

empy

Hi all I decided I was going to do some baking today so I went to open my bag of self raising flour to find hundreds of tiny black crawlie things in it, :eek: they reminded me of mini headlice, lol the big question is what on earth are they? checked the rest of the bags of flour and all seem to be fine!! What do I need to do now, have chucked the bag of flour in the bin and abandoned baking for today.


Any help would be much appreciated.

empy

Penelope_Penguin

They'll be weevils :eek: Hang on while I find a thread with pictures

Creepy Crawlie things in flour. I'll merge this later to keep ideas together.

Enjoy, Penny. x

empy

Thank You Penny, although ewwwww. I will be looking on the lakeland website and investing in some Lock & lock containers I think.


xx

jackieglasgow

:(I don't feel well. Why did I read this page?

MrsE_2

thriftlady wrote: »

I've had these little beasties and now I always put new packets of flour etc in the freezer for 24 hours to kill them. You can store flour in the freezer no problems.

I was thinking they must come in, in flour you buy:eek:

I keep mine in tupperware, but if they are already in the bag:eek::eek::eek:

ubamother

if they are really teeny they are likely to be psoccids

and if they, they'll probably have infested any flour you have - open or not - check in the folds of the packet top

louboutingirl

_pale_ Does anyone else feel itchy?!

Shouldn't of read this just after putting some HM bread in the oven!

xx

Valli

and any other dry goods - I have given up on semolina because they LOVE that
they will infest pearl barley too

apparently if you wipe out your cupboard and then dry the crevices with a hairdryer it dessicates them and kills them.