Evil weevils

Lil_Dee_2

I'm having a trauma with the Psocids mentioned above. Seems they hitched a lift with DH-to-be Weetabix. I'm finding the little blighters everywhere, as unfortunatly his automatic reaction to seeing the mass of weetabix flakes (which is what he initially thought he'd left on the worktop having served up a portion in his bowl) moving :eek: was to flick them away with his hand, if you get my meaning, as oppose to hoovering them up - so they went EVERYWHERE :eek: :rolleyes:

I've now spent a week clearing the moajority of my kitchen cupboards/drawers every morning and night, catching the little blighters. It is not nice knowing that they can survive most any scenario you care to throw at them - there seems to be no deifinate 'how to eradicate Psocids' advice, except to keep using a diluted bleach solution.

At least the numbers have gone down from 30-40 a day to 15-20. I do wonder how many I'm managing to hoover away that I can't see, from the crevices though !!!

I have every sympathy with anyone who has (or has ever had) any type of creepy crawly in their home. It's awful.

Deedee73

I found them once, DH had slighlty annoyed me that day, so I baked him a cake.


MOOO HAAA HA HA

Did feel guilty when he said, ooo that was lovely hunny and gave me a kiss!!

Ellie

Eugh at reading this thread!!!
Im gonna bung me flour in the bin regardless!! Im not even going to look in it!!
VILE!!! :eek:

mrbadexample

Penny-Wise wrote:

:eek: (do weevils freeze well?).

Oh yes. They'll keep for ages in the freezer.

Penny-Wise wrote:

How many calories in a weevil?

About 12.

squeaky

Fay wrote:

I just had to go and check my flour after reading this thread. I can't see anything in there, does that mean I have none, or would I not see them? No signs of anything in my cupboard either, but now I am worried that they are that small that I just can't see them...help!

The critters are big enough to see, so as long as you're paying even the slightest bit of attention you won't be accidentally adding them to your sponge cakes They are certainly big enough to catch in a sieve too.

As for the eggs: these are very very very very small.

The best way to deal with eggs, and this is a "just in case thing", is to freeze your flour for 24 hours which kills them off. I tend to only do this with whole grain type flours because they often take me a couple of months to use up, and I feel a whole lot happier knowing that the little wotsits are dead.

Snoopy_rules

Just read all this posting with interest because I have psocids ( book lice) in my newly plastered conversion. Apparently they love damp plaster. One thing I have learnt from reading all the info online is :-

When you clean your cupboards out with bleach etc make sure they are 100% dry before putting anything back in ( dry them completely with a hairdryer, especially any gaps where they join together.). Apparently they adore the damp bits which is why they like flour, it has moisture in it.

Does anyone know of an insect spray that I can use indoors, not near food, that will ill them instantly, it needs to contain pyrethrines. I have them climbing up the walls, little blighters hide under any sheets of paper I leave on the floor.

newlywed

squeaky wrote:

The critters are big enough to see, so as long as you're paying even the slightest bit of attention you won't be accidentally adding them to your sponge cakes They are certainly big enough to catch in a sieve too.

As for the eggs: these are very very very very small.

The best way to deal with eggs, and this is a "just in case thing", is to freeze your flour for 24 hours which kills them off. I tend to only do this with whole grain type flours because they often take me a couple of months to use up, and I feel a whole lot happier knowing that the little wotsits are dead.

This thread just freaks me out! :eek:

I keep checking everything just in case. Might just put all packets of everything in the freezer as I don't want things crawling round my food cupbaoards!!!

BrandNewDay

Jay-Jay wrote:

Mine were about the size of an ant, very dark brown and although they came from a bag of flour at the far end of the kitchen (near the back door), I found them in my living room and around the front door.

When I tracked them back I found an opened bag of bird seed in the back of the cupboard, behind a mountain of used carrier bags and the like. The bird seed bag was ALIVE!!!!!

A year ago, in the states, I noticed a lot of gnats in my kitchen. I finally tracked them down to a bag of rotten potatos hidden in the back/bottom of the pantry, under a bunch of carrier bags. I knew better than to look too closely, but what I saw was like a miniature scene from a sci-fi movie... like where the eggs are found in Alien. The bag was crawling/squirming and there was some sort of faint noise.

Horrifying.

I am now more careful with carrier bags. We do use them a lot - mainly for poopy diapers - so I like to keep them. But, I don't just toss them in willy nilly and I don't keep them in the same place as veggies, which may be buried and forgotten.

I mentioned this in another thread, recently. Some people freeze flour and rice for a day or two when they bring them home from the store. This will kill what is already in the package. Ideally, you should immediately put flour and similar things into airtight containers. That way, you've killed what may have been brought home and prevented things from spreading.

Ellie2758

Aw c'mon, they're harmless. I've been finding them in my bags of flour for years and nobody has suffered any ill from eating cakes made using said flour. I dont know about the beetles, I think mine are most likely flour weevils - tiny things, easily unnoticed by the human eye.

Penny_Watcher

Ellie2758 wrote:

Aw c'mon, they're harmless. I've been finding them in my bags of flour for years and nobody has suffered any ill from eating cakes made using said flour.

Still prefer my cake without added livestock, thanks all the same :rolleyes: