pantry pests in Pinto Beans

[Tesla'sMom]

You made me swallow my gum!!! I was not expecting that! But you're right, they ARE edible.

And remember you're going to pick over and wash the beans before eating. I used to be the most squeamish person ever about bugs in the food- now I figure the bug didn't eat that much!

[jean in virginia]

Whole grains can have the moth eggs without you having ever seen a moth. Also, if you buy plastic bags of grains/beans/rice, always check and see how much "frass" there is in the bag, because if there's a lot, it may be buggy.

If you ever, ever see a cobweb in a bag, run away screaming....

Wild birdseed is the absolute worst thing to keep in your house....

There are traps that use pheromones to attract the males, and people with parrots (who feed seed instead of pellets) tend to keep a trap out all the time. I don't have parrots in the house, but I still keep a trap out.

If you are treating the bag/bucket with dry ice, did you put the ice in the bottom under the grain? If not it did not do any good, since the principle is that as the dry ice evaporates, the carbon dioxide displaces the air above it, leaving an oxygen-free environment. Then, if eggs do hatch, the larva will die without air.

Dry ice, grain, loosely covered to allow venting, then sealed without a lot of jostling.

I have 55 gallon drums that we packed with wheat for y2k, and we opened one a year ago to feed to pigs (cooked, with y2k brown rice, they loved it) and it was perfect. The rice was rancid, because then I didn't know you shouldn't pack brown rice.

If you have a lot of moths, pm me, as my parrot website sells the traps.

I've tried the ones from Lowe's, and they were not as effective.

[Son of George]

another thing we do after having had moth infestations in our regular food was to hang those fly strips up as an early warning system, at the first sign of the miller moths I could start looking for the source.
One of the main places we found them everytime was in cardboard packaging, cereal boxes, oatmeal, crackers, etc, those suckers seem to love cardboard.

I started thinking they (chinamart) were doing it on purpose, just so food had to get thrown out and new stuff bought.
Now anything and everything possible goes into the freezer before coming into the house, we haven't had any more problems with the pests for past few years, oh and I use a dusting of DE on my pantry shelves and cupboards too.
It sounds like you caught it early and they weren't able to spread, thats good news!
LMV

We got them several years back, after a move. They got down in the corrugated spaces of cardboard boxes. We literally put everything in plastic bags for months to watch for new hatch activity.

[PyratePrincess]

If the packets have O2 absorbers then your fine... if in doubt stick them out in the freezing weather. I try to freeze everything before packing in mylar with 02 absorbers... this seems to help tremendously.

OH and the cycle is freeze for 3 days thaw for 10 days freeze for 3 days and thaw for 10 days and freeze again to ENSURE the death of the winged critters.

Texas WOULD decide to warm into the 50's after almost 2 weeks of freezing weather.

Well, I've learned some valuable information here (and thankfully it wasn't at the most critical time!).

1. I don't care what the advertisement says...Gamma Seals are NOT airtight. Since my wrist is fouled up they definitely make it easier for me to take the tops off and on, but they are not airtight. The work with the buckets and dry ice last night showed that. All 5 gallon buckets; most with gamma lids-5 with regular type. We put about a 4oz piece of dry ice on a small piece of butcher paper on top of the products. The Mylar bags had not been completely sealed at this point. All 5 of the regular lids had to be "burped" (think tupperware) NONE of the gamma seals did. I'm really disappointed in that.

2. Contrary to DH's opinion that leaving beans, rice, etc in the original plastic bags for "double protection"...this does NOT seem to be a best practice, lol!

3. Before you undertake something like this...read all you can 1st...maybe even print it out so you're not running around like a couple of stooges thinking...gee-does the dry ice go on the bottom-or the top? Why does it matter? (two schools of thought out their, btw). what do you mean we can't put it in direct contact with the food? Why not? where do you put it? How much dry ice is TOO much? (Good thing I was watching those buckets for the rest of the evening!)

I still have so much to learn. I have one smaller bucket that just has what I call "ready to bake" mixes. Mostly envelopes with blueberry or raspberry muffins, hushpuppy mix, etc. Convenience mixes. What do you do with those? How about packages of jello or instant puddings? Powdered fruit drinks that aren't in #10 cans?????

I'm becoming my own lab rat

[luvmyvet]

"I'm becoming my own lab rat "

lol, I know the feeling, ....and now regret skipping home ec classes all those years ago...

[maddymae]

Glad you figured out your problem. We're fairly new to prep and sometimes worry a bit it's being done right. Thanks for the post and everyones input.

[Homesteader]

I still have so much to learn. I have one smaller bucket that just has what I call "ready to bake" mixes. Mostly envelopes with blueberry or raspberry muffins, hushpuppy mix, etc. Convenience mixes. What do you do with those? How about packages of jello or instant puddings? Powdered fruit drinks that aren't in #10 cans?????

I'm becoming my own lab rat

Well, I think you are doing the right thing--put them in smaller buckets. I have had very little trouble over the years with moths. But every once in a while you do, so if you have your preps compartmentalized you limit your loses.

I take my instant oatmeal packets, instant mixes and store them in buckets or gallon glass jars. That way if something goes wrong, I haven't lost everything.

One funny story about moths. There use to be a bulk food place in the Spokane Valley. They had probably the best granola out there. Well I once bought a bag, brought it home and put it in the cupboard. Wouldn't you know it, when I came back a week later to have a bowl of granola, the still sealed bag had months in it. I took it back to get my money back--they would only exchange it for another bag of the same granola. I took it home, but I just couldn't face eating it, so I fed it to the chickens.

[philjam]

Are they mealworms? If so, is a food source in many countries.

[Leigh19717]

Once you've got pantry moths, Bay Leaves are WORTHLESS. Ask me how I know. :(

I agree with many of the earlier posts, get the infested product out of your house NOW. I also agree that with beans especially, you can salvage the beans that have been infested, but do can them up immediately. Otherwise, you are going to risk infestation of your rice, wheat and pasta. And let me tell you, once the moths have hit your rice and wheat, it becomes chicken feed.

I've never had a problem with beans, but I have with other grains. They are a pain to deal with and you will probably never be rid of them now. Sorry. We had our house tented and fumigated for termites and I still couldn't get rid of them. Our termite guy said that the eggs were probably hiding on tea bag boxes, under the handles of my air tight cannisters, etc.

I feel your pain, but at least the critters are completely edible!

well we have them in one pantry now . I had over 12 boxes of the instant oatmeal in individual packs...had was the word. boxes of crackers and snacks for the kids, which totally grosses me out when I really think that it takes an egg almost 3 MONTHS to hatch into the moth. Moth only lives a week, doesn't eat during that stage, only mates and can lay up to 400 eggs. Seems like they like candy as well. So far, our food room or other pantry are showing no signs of them. Can I be that hopeful? I am this weekend taking the other oatmeal I have in another room and putting it all in tubs with gamma lids. if they are safe after that, then I will feed my kids from it. I KNOW...we all eat a lil wevil or egg almost every time we eat, but to have larva crawling on your food, well that food is out of here.

[Wiskey Reb]

What I've done in the past is set up a big box fan out on the porch and winnow the product. the beans will fall into a container and the very light moths etc will get blown away. Then I DE to kill whatever larvae hatches and I'm done. If necessary I repeat in a couple of weeks.