- How a few moths ruined my day
- A lot of food in the trash
Today after watching the Sunday morning session of General Conference, I went to the pantry and counted 5 moths flying around. I looked it up online, and discovered these were grain moths. Fabulous. I also discovered the only way to get rid of them was to clear out your pantry, get rid of any grains in your pantry--unopened or opened (they can penetrate plastic and boxes and lay eggs in the food) and remove all boxes where eggs could also be laid.
So my very full pantry suddenly became very empty--I had just purchased 75lbs of flour to work on my food storage, all my reserves of baking powder, sugar, pasta, beans, rice, crackers, etc., etc. all of it in the trash. We filled up two 30 gallon trash cans with all the food we threw out--and our recycling bins are overflowing with boxes.
I'm trying not to think of how much money I just threw in the trash....or how long it is going to be before I can put food back in my pantry (probably a couple of weeks to make sure all the moths have been killed and any eggs as well).....Matt tried to convince me it wasn't so bad because the pantry got cleaned out and we can buy new food and rotate out the old stuff.
Here is what I have left from my very full pantry--it fits on less than half of my dining room table.
11 comments:
What a bummer! I am sorry you had to go through this.
OH.MY.GOSH. How in the heck do they penetrate plastic?? That sucks soooo bad- and I know how full your huge pantry was. I am so, so sorry!!! That really sucks. :(
ewwww, how do they get through plastic? How do you avoid them? I SO need a lesson (since my food storage stuff is all on its way sometime on some truck from Idaho - hee hee)
I have no idea how they get through plastic--but everything I read says the can. You get them usually by bringing something home from the store that has them in there--I had bought flour a week ago and I suspect they were probably in the flour. The only way to be sure is to freeze for 4 days anything you bring home that contains grains....so next to impossible.
I should say that there is one way to prevent the spread of the moths--store all you grains (cereal, pasta, flour, rice, etc) in air tight, hard plastic storage containers. That way if you do bring home something infected then the moths will be contained to only that item rather than contaminating your entire pantry. We will shortly be purchasing some of these!
I am so sorry, but thank you for letting all of us learn from your exammple.
I feel your pain! That totally stinks!
Totally stinks! I hate throwing money away like that!
I found your blog. We need to get in touch. I am sorry to here about all the food. I had no idea you were pregnant. Email me or call.
I'm so sorry this happened. I've had to do pantry cleanouts due to weevils (sp?) , I didn't even have as much as you did, but it is just awful! Sorry you lost so much! I see you found some stuff to hopefully prevent this though and I am going to go research it cause I'm super paranoid now.
My friend had a horrible problem with moths that lasted several years.
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