More Than You Want to Know

Insects, bugs, arachnids, I'm sure there's purpose in their existence somewhere, but it's not in our house.  I've been battling pantry moths for several months. I may be bigger and smarter but they procreate rapidly and hide very well.

A couple of moths flying around, not terrible. Their wriggly disgusting larvae wiggly in our foods and , heaven help us, on the kitchen ceiling are positively repulsive. After cleaning out the pantry and throwing out what once was a mighty stockpile of crackers, jello, cake mix and cereal, they are still here.

Indian Meal Moth Larva

Yesterday I did some additional research on getting rid of them and read some horror stories, (the worst of which had the maggot looking creatures falling from the ceiling into cooking food, ewww).  I learned they not only eat your foods but can digest human and animal hair, they lay eggs in crevices and other spaces that cannot be reached therefore cannot be destroyed, they hatch out at intervals so even when you think they're gone, they're not.  I learned that moth ball fumes are carcinogenic and not much can be done about preventing the eggs from hatching, and that most uncanned  shelf stable foods contain eggs, insects parts and traces of fecal matter in tiny amounts shown to be safe enough for consumption (ewww, again).

After cleaning out the pantry, again, and then removing all my kitchen drawers to be vacuumed and bleached.  I Googled again and ordered pheromone traps from Amazon.com and called my local pharmacy to have them order lavender oil.  Cotton balls dipped in the oil are supposed to deter the moths, and the traps catch the male ones and ,hopefully, prevent breeding. Some other advice given was freeze your foods for four days to kill any unhatched eggs lurking inside and keep your flour and grain products stored in your freezer.  

Several years ago my mother-in-law had the same issue and spent a fortune on Tupperware and glass containers, at the time I thought it was much ado about nothing much. I see now that I was wrong and if you sell Tupperware, let me know.  I might be in the market for airtight containers.