These little buggers--the Indian meal moth-- are the bane of my existence. I cannot count the times I've had to throw out every single perishable thing in my kitchen--flour (white, as the whole wheat stays in the fridge, ditto the cornmeal and nuts) pasta, dried beans, rice, etc., etc., etc. And then you discover, as we did the last time this happened, that the darned things are in something you'd never think of, like the cat's dried liver treats. We managed to avoid throwing out the whole canister of expensive dried liver (I know these are supposed to be dog treats but it's Lucy the cat who adores them) by first heating them in the microwave and then freezing them. The cat didn't mind the remains of the moth larvae.
Have you ever looked at pantry moth larvae? Ugh. They are so gross, and I'm not usually bug phobic. Apparently the lavae can chew through cardboard and plastic, so even sealed things straight from the store aren't safe from them.
Of course, we put the pheromone traps out, and try to replace them every few weeks, but that doesn't keep us from getting regularly infested. Do the moths come from outside, or from something we've bought? So frustrating.
We also get an influx of tiny black sugar ants all over the kitchen counters every spring when it rains. Those are annoying but usually can be taken care of with the little liquid ant bait traps, and it's kind of interesting to watch, like a science experiment when we were in school. (Who remembers ant farms? So fun! Do they still make them?)
Dear Reds and Reddies, have you had to deal with these pesky pests? Or do you have other things that invade your space?
Ugh to bugs! We keep the bugs out of the flour by keeping a tea diffuser [with bay leaves in it] in the flour canister . . . .
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