On Saturday I found a moth in my flour. If you have read my earlier posts, you know that the moths started in our coat closet, which is not next to our pantry! So I spent Saturday afternoon and evening sorting through food and cleaning the pantry. On the plus side, I have a nice clean pantry! I am happy about that--it really needed it. I didn't find any other food that was infested, although I threw away the corn meal as a precaution. Some things were just old. We also moved the dog food to the deep freeze--we need to come up with a good solution for keeping that. With a lab, it doesn't make sense to buy small bags, so we are storing it for long periods.
The problem I am having now is that I am still finding at least 2 or 3 moths a day, and I can't figure out where they are coming from. I am assuming that there were eggs that we couldn't see in the coat closet and they are hatching (insert gag noise here!) I can't find the cocoons, though, and having been through an ant problem, I am just sure that where there is one visible disgusting insect, there is a thriving, partying colony! I hope I am wrong!
I think the type of moth we have is the Indian Meal Moth. Here is an article on what to do. I think I am going to have to do some of the things again because I don't think we did a good enough job in the coat closet. They are still definitely coming from there. I went and checked as I am making this post, and found 2 live moths and a worm. This is sort of making me a little crazy--I can deal with insects outside, sometimes even appreciate them as God's creation--inside my home, it's another story! It feels sort of violating.
I have mentioned our problem to at least 3 people, all of whom have had infestations of the same moths, 2 of those from birdseed. There should be a prominent warning on the bag. I guess to be truthful, I didn't read the directions, but really, who reads the directions on birdseed?
Anyway, if you made it this far in my post, sorry for grossing you out and boring you! More pics of the kids are sure to follow in future posts so don't give up on me. I just needed a place to vent!
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5 comments:
oh Corrie, I so feel your pain! You should have seen me at two in the morning fighting a rat with Gary here in our house in Cochabamba. I was seriously thinking of packing at that very moment. And then the next day we found scorpions, which we continue to find in the house and can't figure out where they're coming from. So know that you're not alone in the fight against bug life!
So glad I found your blog! The kids are getting so big- I can't believe that it has been 9 months since I have seen them! I'm so sorry about the moth issue! We had a big problem with flies when in our apartment because of a rotten potato that I "lost". It took forever to get rid of them! Hope it all end soon- it's a yucky feeling to have!
I'm sorry about your moth infestation! You do raise an interesting point about warning labels. I mean it is a bag of bird seed, which birds eat, so what could be dangerous (or unhealthy) about that? So I personally would probably not have read the label either, even if it did have one. I wonder how we could phrase such a warning, maybe "Unused portions of this product should be discarded or sealed in an airtight container to avoid insect infestation." Now how many people would want to purchase a product like that? Good luck!
So sorry to hear about your moth problem. I had them a lot at an apartment I used to live in here. I bet I was quite a sight, running all over the place, trying to get them all and keep them from going upstairs. Hope you get it taken care of soon. ~Deidre
Can you put that sticky fly paper up to try to catch them?
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