Bugs in my flour

chevalier

Well actually it is in my mums flour. We have been allowed to stay with her for the holidays and oh my life. We have been turfing stuff out of her cupboards that are from 1998!!!! The earliest was from before I was married even! So the thing is there are what look like bug carcases all over the shelves and in the packets. They are lozenge shape and are about 4mm long and brown? I have been cleaning these right off the shelves of course thinking it was just from the really out of date stuff.

Thing is now I had a look in her in date flour and sugar and there are really small bugs in there as well. Also brown but maybe a mm long. Can just about see them when they move with the naked eye. I am not surprised my mum has missed seeing them, but it is still pretty disgusting.

So tomorrow I am going to (gently) show her these and suggest it all needs throwing (bound to be resistence), but what should I do to stop them coming back. I am assuming that putting it all in containers is the way to go, or would just the fact I have cleaned the shelves off put an end to it?

Also I she has an AWFUL LOT of paper all over the work surfaces (these got cleared off into bags for our visit) and I wondered if the bugs were from the paper.

Thanks in advance
chev

HappyMJ

Bugs may be from the flour. Are they weevils?

To get rid you have to throw everything which isn't in a tin out.

I'd spray something into the cupboard such as a surface spray.

pigpen

weevils are the big ones..

http://www2.ca.uky.edu/entweb/storage/flourbeetle.gif

bin everything.. freeze new stuff and keep in airtight containers.. they are wee nasties to get rid of.. bin and burn everything.. they live in the tiniest of crevices.

the tiny ones might not be so rampant .


both are completely harmless.. and full of protein!

force_ten

the bugs in the flour sound like flour mites, and you will need to bin all the flour sugar rice pasta and cereal that is in the same cupboard as the infested flour

theoretica

Anything that you are at all doubtful about but keeping could be frozen for several days to kill the crawlies and their eggs. Sounds like a set of airtight storage jars might be wanted too. We had to clear pantry moths out of my grandad's place - took a while but we won.

Anne_Marie_2

Suffered the little blighters a few years ago. They got in everywhere, and had to bin everything in that cupboard. Am sure they had come from the flour, but they were in packets of oatcakes, stock cubes. Took about a fortnight to get rid of them completely. Still gives me the heebie-jeebies thinking about it.
Now, every time I buy flour and grains, I put in a plastic bag and freeze for 4 days (or longer if I forget about it), before putting into lock and lock containers or glass storage jars.

candlelight_2013

Yes, me too. Whenever I buy a new bag of flour I put it into a plastic bag and freeze it. It doesn't matter how long you leave it in as long as it is a minimum of 48 hours. Then store in a lock and lock type box.

Candlelightx

chevalier

Thanks for the responses. I have binned everything and sprayed the cupboards with a multi purpose spray, storage is next