Little moths everywhere

[journey11]

I smoke and drink so tend not to worry as much about bombs.

Least of your worries, I guess then. Although the thoughts of creepy-crawlies can be more than some can bear. I quit smoking about 9 years ago and still ended up with asthma. My grandpa smoked since he was 11! He's 84 now and only got COPD last year, but I hear he is the exception, not the norm. Take good care of yourself, Nyboy. We want to keep you around!

Everywhere in that kitchen - flies! So, what did we do? Sprayed everything with DDT, of course ...

Yikes! I reckon you could put a pot roast back in the oven for a bit to sanitize it, but just the thought. Now that I know what flies DO when they land on your food...

Flies are a whole 'nother category!
DH goes on the hunt with flyswatter in hand if there is the remotest hint of a fly in the house.

That's my DH too. Flies send him into a fit.

You can get a pheromone trap from "Safer." They come two traps in a box, and cost about $7. The moths are attracted to it and get stuck in the sticky trap. If you don't, they will reproduce and you will find tiny weevils in your dry food.
Weevils could have come in months ago in bird seed, dog food, flour, just about anything with grain in it.
Personally, I would not fumigate a house just for weevils. But then, we have brown recluse spiders living happily in the basement, so my tolerance level may be different than some people's, haha.

Thanks, So Lucky -- I think I will give that a try first then. I'm afraid I didn't catch them in time and they're spreading.

I get most of the spiders and buggies with the vacuum hose. Wouldn't matter how many bombs I set off, there would be a steady stream of stink bugs and spiders crawling in.

 

[so lucky]

Lots of spiders eat bugs, so we can consider them little exterminators. But still,

 

[ducks4you]

I've had those before. None this year. Where you keep flour and sugar and spices, if some gets spilled you can get the moths, who lay the eggs, which hatch as larvae, who grow to moths, etc. I didn't use an insecticide. I located the places that they were feeding and thoroughly cleaned and bleached those places, and I lost the moths.
I sometimes hesitate to post my solutions to animal feed storage because some people are convinced that plastic containers will keep bugs and mice out. I keep horse, and chicken feed in my barn's grain room, and dry cat food and dry dog food in my basement. I keep ALL of them in metal trash cans that I purchased new for that purpose. The moths have never been in my barn, just in the kitchen, and never in the basement.
I learned my lesson about feed storage when I first bought my horses in 1985. The two plastic garbage cans that I bought for grain had big holes in the lids shortly after I started using them. Mice chewed through the lids. Steel cans are too thick for mice, although a rat could chew through. If you have rats, you have a real problem.

 

[catjac1975]

I think maybe they're called "Millers". They're those little moths that get into your flour, about 3/8ths of an inch long and plain brown in color. I've never had them before, but now suddenly they're turning up everywhere. I had to throw out 2 quart jars of dehydrated peppers after I found them in there. So bummed out, lost one jar of my paprika. The other was fine. Both were tightly sealed with a plastic screw on lid and both were from 2014's garden, so I'm not sure how they got in there. Also found them in the dog's biscuits and a bag of cat treats. Had to throw those out. Then I found one pupa attached to a piece of tulle fabric in my craft room when I went to get it for a Christmas craft, which I thought was an odd place to find one. I'll have to check the whole tub of fabric. I think I might have some wool in there too.

Where do they come from, and any idea what I should do to kill them? I'm afraid they'll take over my whole house. I've been keeping my flour and grains in the freezer. I only have so much room, though!

The worst offender I think is that they come in pet food. You can get sticky traps just for the moths. I keep flour in the fridge. I have found them in pasta.

 

[journey11]

The worst offender I think is that they come in pet food. You can get sticky traps just for the moths. I keep flour in the fridge. I have found them in pasta.

I think that's where they began, in a box of Milk Bones.

 

[annageckos]

I have animals and get those stupid moths in the seed or dry food sometimes. They are pretty easy to get under control, even if you end up with lots of them. First find out what they are in and toss it. I use gallon bags for all dry goods. Flour, pasta, rice, bird food. That kind of stuff. Then get pantry moth traps with the pheromones. They work like magic. I buy them on ebay, normally six or eight at a time. That way I have them on hand if I see a moth flying around. I've found their larva on odd things too, like terry cloth. They didn't eat it though. I also use the vacuum to suck up any moths I can.

 

[catjac1975]

The weirdest place I have found them is in tea bags. WHo would have thought that they liked tea!