I found the pantry moths during the summer. I took fairly drastic action - I went through the cabinets and threw out any opened pasta, grain product everything. I re arranged the food stuffs to get cereals and the like out of those cabinets. I wiped everything down with vinegar. I am STILL inundated. I know they must be in something, hiding somewhere!
I put fresh basil in the cabinets! I can't find traps in any hardware stores. Any other tips? HELP!
I had to throw out a whole new box of oatmeal this morning, because they've gotten into them! Do I have to do another full throw out???
Thank you all for the tips AND even more realizing I am not alone in this. I had everything in plastic bags but they got in them anyway! I think you are right about the hard plastic and glass containers being what I have to do.
QUESTION : like another poster I have a corner cabinet I cannot get behind and I think they are back there! Any suggestions?
Get some air tight plastic (or glass) containers and take everything out of the original boxes.
Also, bugs do not like tea tree oil or peppermint. I use both of these oils mixed with water (just a few drops of each) and spray around the house. Keeps the spiders outside and should work for flying bugs too.
I keep my flour, sugar, brown sugar and items like that in the freezer.
Everything else? Gets its own special container, labeled. You know that commercial where the lady has everything in her fridge labeled? That's my cupboards!
I never store any of my cereal, grains, pasta or rices in their original containers. I have some beautiful containers from XOXO with the pop up lids. These are my more costly ones but to make it more affordable I purchased their large starter kit for $100.00 and then can always find individual containers for a great price from TG Max, HomeGoods, and or Target. I also have Rubbermaid's cereal containers. All of these containers are clear so I can easily see what is in them and just how much. We never have a bug problem because there is nothing for them to get to to feast on. It's worth the expense of buying containers to protect your food from insects and other vermin.
do you keep any bird seed in there? We had a problem with moths growing up due to bird seed (we had a bird). Store that in the freezer. You can keep grains in the freezer until you get things under control as well. Good luck! I always hated them.
We learned to keep anything in bags (insects can chew through paper) or cardboard in clear plastic storage bins with lids in the pantry.
Jars and cans are fine as they are.
Anything like flour, rice, pasta, cereals, chips, snacks, sugar, etc is kept in separate ziplock bags within the bins.
If anything becomes infested, it only effects one bin or one bag - so it's easy to clean out and the others are not infested.
Since we started doing this (and we did it because we're out in the country in the middle of a soybean field and every fall when the harvest happens we have a minor mouse invasion for a week or two), we've had no insect problems.
Insects and/or their eggs can come in on any paper or cardboard box - think about how much cardboard your food comes in.
http://www.apartmenttherapy.com/best-pantry-organizers-sp...
I bought pheremone-infused glue traps, but I had to go online to find them. That was the only thing I found that worked.
Ugh!!! They even got into our unopened peanut butter.
We ended up throwing away everything in our closet and then I repainted the closet. When I was painting I discovered a cocoon in the corner up at the ceiling. I couldn't see it until I used a flashlight to inspect the walls.
It still took about another week for the remaining moths to die off or be killed.
What a nightmare!! Good luck!
I had this problem for like a year. Went through the pantry many times and threw away a lot of food. What I did to finally get rid of them was started all over with new food, cleaned the pantry, and got traps from amazon. When I bought new food like flour, etc went straight into the fridge. It's been a couple years and they haven't been back. I am back to keeping grains in the pantry cause I need the fridge space.
A thorough cleaning AND the traps. I found them at Gardener's Supply here: http://www.gardeners.com/buy/pantry-moth-traps/32-599.htm...
We had them for years. They would go dormant in the winter so every year I'd think "we got them!" and then in the spring, there they'd be again.
First, you must completely remove everything from your pantry/cabintes and put everything dry - EVERYTHING - in a non-porous container. Cereal, rice, pasta, spices, bread crumbs, oatmeal, flour, dog food, etc. all need to go in plastic or glass containers. Everything in your pantry should be in glass or plastic, except for things that are in jars and cans already. Doesn't matter if they're sealed or not, doesn't matter if the contents inside are bagged or not...no cardboard boxes, bags, or any other porous containers allowed.
Second, get some diatomite. I just used the stuff that's in my pool's filter but you can get this at a hardware store. Empty your pantry/cabinets completely, wash and dry all of the shelving (if it's removable, take it out and wash it, getting the sides of the shelves too) and then sprinkle diatomite along all the cracks and crevices, the corners, etc.
Third, wipe the exterior of every single container as you put it back in the pantry/cabinet.
My final clean out, the one that worked, cost me about $100 in containers and a good 6 hours of cleaning, but I haven't had any moths (knock on wood) in a few years.
ETA: yes on the pherimone traps. We also used those to catch the mature moths and prevent them from laying more eggs.
We hired an exterminator to put up pheromone traps. He said that other people in the area had them, and they were probably in a shipment of some dry good that we all bought at the store (gross as that is). Put everything in tupperware or similar when you buy it, or freeze the flour, etc. I would also buy some of those goods at a different store to see if it makes a difference. But if they are really bad, the exterminator was worth it to us. The pheremone traps worked well and we haven't had them back in a few years.
Put your powder stuff in the fridge. I have pancake mix, flour, oatmeal, etc...on the lower shelf. When you get rid of everything you could put them back but what about putting them into giant zip lock baggies.
