Bugs in flour

Primrose

Just discovered small mites in a newly opened bag of flour stored in cupboard since early in lockdown.
Any way of killing them , ie heating oven to make it usable?   Hate wasting food if there,s a way of rescuing it.  No idea where they came  from.  Most products in this cupboard are in tins or sealed containers   Any thoughts or suggestion? 

And any way of preventing a recurrence? 

[Deleted User]

Revolting as it sounds they won't harm you and you can use the flour with them in it perfectly safely...if you can bring yourself to do it. Check ALL your dry goods as usually if one item has them most others will too.  Freeze flour and other dry goods in a sealed plastic bag for 48 hours as you bring them in to the house, store each item in a separate plastic bag and if you get an infestation you have hope of containing it.  The freezing will kill all eggs larvae pupae and adults if they are present straight from the shop and prevent a subsequent hatch in your larder later on.

horsechestnut

It sounds like Weevils.  They won't do you any harm, but If you want to you can put the flour through a fine sieve to remove them and then use the flour.
They are attracted to any dried product that is made from Grain. i.e. Wheat, Rye Oats Rice etc. and love dark places.
You need to clean out the cupboard. Wash it with any detergent and a splash of bleach, and then let it dry thoroughly before replacing the goods.  Check that nothing else has the Weevils as they spread quickly.  Or if it is the only thing that is contaminated take the flour back to the shop for a refund. They always give it.

Primrose

Thanks for your advice.  We had a major clear out of this cupboard before restocking around February in anticipation of a possible lockdown and have had another clear out today following finding bugs in the flour.  We were horrified to find that several sealed containers and  Kilmer jars full of dry goods with the plaStic screw lids were all infected with moth like insects so have had to dispose of a lot of dry products.  Contents of Kilmer jars with metal screw lids have  remained fine and uncontaminated for some strange reason.

I'm embarrassed to admit we have probably stocked up with more dry goods than we can consume in a reasonable amount of time and are now going to have to review our purchasing strategy going forward, even given that we are in the older/vulnerable self isolating category and are trying to avoid shops as much as possible.  I think the "might be useful to have in stock as we use once in a while" category is going to need a good future culling. 

rach_k

Primrose said:

I'm embarrassed to admit we have probably stocked up with more dry goods than we can consume in a reasonable amount of time and are now going to have to review our purchasing strategy going forward, even given that we are in the older/vulnerable self isolating category and are trying to avoid shops as much as possible.  I think the "might be useful to have in stock as we use once in a while" category is going to need a good future culling. 

If you do as advised above and freeze any new products as they come into your home, then seal them in containers you know the bugs can't get into, you should be fine.  I think it's difficult to rid the house of the weevils completely but if your containers are okay, the food will be okay.  Don't let it stop you maintaining a sensible pantry.  

VJsmum

I wouldn't eat it, I'm afraid, flour is rather cheap anyway

GreyQueen

There are several pantry pests which can and do walk into jars via rhe threading on the neck of the jar, which they cannot do if you’re using those jars with a rubber gasket and a clampdown lid. Most dried goods probably come with weevil eggs pre installed, but if you eat them soon after purchasing, you may never see them hatch. If you have enough freezer space, double bagging flours in plastic bags and freezing them for a few days is said to kill weevil eggs. I presently have a bag of flour undergoing this treatment.

MingVase

Aye. There is more to prepping than filling cupboards with stuff, we all find this one out at some point.

greenbee

MingVase said:

Aye. There is more to prepping than filling cupboards with stuff, we all find this one out at some point.

You need to fill them with the right things. I'm guessing jellybabies wouldn't present the same problem?

In all seriousness, it's about working out how much you get through in a given amount of time, how long things will last, how to store them etc. Lots of people don't realise that mice will chew through pretty robust plastic, and lose food to rodents - metal or glass is the only option if you are likely to have mice near your stores. And storage needs to be kept scrupulously clean, as well as at a cool consistent temperature - there's a reason pantries/larders were on north walls and had ventilation. Much food that used to be stable at room temperature now needs to be refrigerated as 'room temperature' is a LOT warmer (thankfully!) than it used to be. 

PipneyJane

GreyQueen said:

There are several pantry pests which can and do walk into jars via rhe threading on the neck of the jar, which they cannot do if you’re using those jars with a rubber gasket and a clampdown lid. 

Too true.  Plastic screw tops are worse than useless.  They don’t give an airtight seal, which is why those jars always have a plastic/aluminium seal inside them when they’re sold.  Have you ever seen those big jug-like plastic jars of rice, the ones which contain 5kg of rice?  (They have plastic lids.)  The only time I have ever had bugs in my rice was when I bought one of those and used it without decanting the rice into something else.  We hadn’t even used half the jar before they invaded.  

These days, I keep my rice in Lock-n-Lock boxes.  We buy 10kg sacks and split it between 2 of the largest size Lock—n-Locks.  Ditto flour.  I haven’t had any bugs since I invested in those boxes.

- Pip

GreyQueen

   I’m a lock and lock fan girl, and have been fortunate enough to get lots of the small ones in chazzers over the years. My pasta stash sits in one of those steel breadbins, a modern reproduction of the trad enamel ones. I also keep crackers in another bread bin, the kind with no gaps.

As Greenbee says, mice will go thru even heavy duty plastics, I have seen this with my own eyes. As well as being incredibly destructive via chewing, mice are doubly incontinant and contaminate what they don’t eat by peeing and pooping on it. They also get into textiles for nesting, and chew stuff up.

I’m somewhat cursed with an acute sense of smell, a fairly common side effect of having ME. I can smell mice, it’s an odour which is hard to describe but, once you’ve got it stored in your head a the mouse odour, you’ll recognise it.

A way of getting food containers without spending an arm and a leg is to gather up,old biscuit and suchlike tins. Ultimately, stored food is always going to be attractive to vermin, so diligence about policing the stores is necessary.