Evil weevils

rising_from_the_ashes

Bump - anyone help?

Margaret52129

Gosh - I've just opened a bag of flour with these things in them (bag had been torn by my cupboard hinge) - but have decanted into a plastic box and will cook with it later.

I've had these before and unless the flour is really, really overrun by the little blighters, I've used it and I'm still here to tell the tale. My OH says that our ancestors must have eaten them as they couldn't have been able to just throw the stuff away and replace it. I'm sure the heat when cooking would kill them. Look at is as extra protein!!!!

But this thread reminds me of something funny that happened years ago. My Aunt (who lives in USA) often got ants in her cupboards and on one occasion they were attributed to be coming from some cereal I had bought (she never had cereal unless we were visiting) so, of course, it was my fault. I checked them out, but couldn't see any of them - but it was her house etc.etc....:o

Anyway, she was making tea, and decided to do egg and chips and got out the chip pan (electrical) only to find the oil with lots of bits in. She still cooked the chips and blamed the bits on old potato bits from a previous meal. I declined them (not my favourite food) but when I looked into her cupboard after tea, I found all the ants waiting to get back into the chip pan!:eek:

She'd only cooked and served the damn ants for tea! My OH and DDs ate their way through dozens and dozens of ants with their egg and chips. :eek::eek: I've never 'fessed up on this one and the Aunt has now died, so it will forever remain my secret.

Having said that about the cereal, on another visit, I bought some cereal I liked called 'Crackling Oat Bran' (a bit like weetos) and after a week or so of eating them I discovered had ants all over them - only after I'd poured on the milk! I didn't eat it and threw them away, but even now we call them 'Crackling ant bran'!!

rising_from_the_ashes

Margaret52129 wrote: »

Anyway, she was making tea, and decided to do egg and chips and got out the chip pan (electrical) only to find the oil with lots of bits in. She still cooked the chips and blamed the bits on old potato bits from a previous meal. I declined them (not my favourite food) but when I looked into her cupboard after tea, I found all the ants waiting to get back into the chip pan!:eek:

She'd only cooked and served the damn ants for tea! My OH and DDs ate their way through dozens and dozens of ants with their egg and chips. :eek::eek: I've never 'fessed up on this one and the Aunt has now died, so it will forever remain my secret.

:eek::eek: Ohhhhhh myyyyyyy!:eek::eek:

Well, I feel a bit better now! Have thrown out the bags (with "activity" in) and thoroughly cleaned cupboards - fingers crossed;)

woollyhat_2

After reading pages of this thread I feel uneasy to open the massive bag of flour we have in the bin we store it in. I hardly use it but it comes in handy but if I put the whole opened bag in the freezer now (which I've had for a few months), would it stop anything hatching inside even though I've had it out?

I've never seen these little animals and had no issues at parents house with any types of flours even though we had them for ages but now I'm afraid to open any bags lol.

orangesmartie

I think I may have bugs, but I'm not sure. I don't have lots of those tiny little black bugs you all mention, but then, my kitchen is black tile and black granite....

Anyway, last night I was getting a drink on my way to bed and I notice a weird little shadow on the ceiling. I thought it was was a cobweb, so got the broom and gave it a swipe. Looked down on the counter and there was this creamy colour 'worm'. About 1cm long. Don't know what it was, but er dropped it down the sink accompanied by boiling water.

Had a poke around in the cupboards, no evidence of any creepy crawlie type things so went to bed.

Tonight I have completely cleared out all the cupboards and inspected all of the bags and boxes. One of my bags of flour looked like it had little 'cobwebby' thingies inside it and tiny holes in the bottom but no signs of life (or corpses). Thankfully this bag is nearly empty so I've chucked it away to be safe and I'm trying not to think about the pizza dough I made over the weekend and ate on Monday....

So I've hoovered and bleached all the cupboards and am leaving them to air.

All the food is laid out on a big tarpaulin so I'm hoping that if anything is alive, I'll see signs of it tomorrow.

On the plus side, i found a Finnish chocolate bar hidden at the back of the cupboard with a BBE of 21/09/09.....

The plan is then to hairdryer the cupboards tomorrow and line them and also buy a load of storage boxes (I have 10 bags of different types and flavours of flour at the moment )

Question is, is this enough? I don't really want to throw away the unopened flour. I've chucked any open packets that i thought might even be a little bit suspect.

frugalpam

Well, no sign of the little beasties for a few months now, after a major bleaching session of the kitchen cupboards and all surfaces, and chucking out all the flour, cereals, grains and similar If I buy flour now, it gets the freezer treatment to kill off anything that might be lurking in there, then it gets stored in an airtight container. Phew, maybe I'll just buy Mr Kipling's goodies in future!

[Deleted User]

Haven't done much baking over the past couple of months but thought I'd do some today - but when I pulled out bag of SF flour (Tesco) it was moving ! :eek:

Tiny little black things in there. I checked out all the bags of flour nearby (what a waste) and they were the same (although not as heavily infested). have chucked it all out, and have the container they were all in outside - but now I don't know what to do about the cupboard. How do i make sure there's nothing left behind ?? And how did they get in there ???

The bag was open - sealed with a Klippit from lakeland, but I guess I'm going to have to seal my flour better in future

Soworried

Hi
I have managed to find a thread for you about it. I haven't read it but hopefully it will be a help to you. If it puts your mind at ease, they are edible.
https://forums.moneysavingexpert.com/discussion/267932

FairyPrincessk

To prevent it in the future, stick your flour in the freezer for a couple of days when the bag is new--kills any eggs (just imagine they disappear when they die!). After that you can store in an airtight container, but usually freezing it is enough to keep them from hatching and becoming visible.

Skint_yet_Again

I also had this problem with weevels in the past. They are in the flour when you buy it and will hatch in the warm if you dont use flour up.

I just cleaned the cupboard and wiped with bleach. I found advice on internet and now when I buy flour I put the whole bag straight in the freezer for 48 hours. Then remove and pour flour into a sealed plastic container and keep in fridge. It works for me..... no more crawlies in my flour I think its the cold that kills them/prevents them from hatching