Help! Pantry Moths

April 15, 2012 7:14 PM

Attack of the pantry moths. How do I get rid of this pestilence?

I've been dealing with a recurrent pantry moth infestation for about 3 years.

About 3 summers I noticed some pantry moths in my kitchen. I threw out all of the food, cereal, grains, in the offending area . I even bleached the entire pantry. Some traps from Home Depot seem to catch some of them.

What can I do to eradicate my home of these awful bugs?

posted by burlsube to home & garden (22 answers total)

Throw out whatever you've got that the lavae are living in. Probably flour or oats or similar. Put bay leaves throughout pantry. Replace when they disintegrate. No more pantry moths.
posted by dantodd at 7:17 PM on April 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

Invest in some Tupperware or Tupperware-like containers for your grains, flours, etc., that will host the moth larvae. Encapsulate everything that could conceivably host them, because they're tiny buggers, and once you think you've gotten rid of them, they show up in another box of something. It's expensive at the outset, but it's the only way we kept them from returning at my Mom's house.
posted by xingcat at 7:20 PM on April 15, 2012 [2 favorites]

Ours seemed to come from the bags of dog food we'd buy every few months. Once we stopped keeping those in the house (or kept them in tightly-sealed plastic bins), the moth infestations became much less severe.
posted by belladonna at 7:22 PM on April 15, 2012

Oh, I also started keeping all of the flour & cornmeal in the freezer.
posted by belladonna at 7:22 PM on April 15, 2012 [3 favorites]

I had a problem with moths. Cleaning up and sealing off food wasn't enough, as they were already in the house and would find something to eat (though this is good for preventing them from showing up anew)

What you want are pheremone traps. They're little triangular paper things from the hardware store, sticky inside and with a lure even tastier than food for the moths.

I don't remember the brand I used, but it looked a lot like the Pantry Pest.

You'll need to use them for a few weeks to get both the currently flying about generation and the soon to hatch ones.
posted by zippy at 7:26 PM on April 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

er, moth pheromone traps, here corrected not only for my vanity but for the benefit of future generations of searchers
posted by zippy at 7:28 PM on April 15, 2012

If you buy bulk foods, stop. In my experience, that's how they get in to start with.
posted by looli at 7:39 PM on April 15, 2012

Ugh. Just dealt with this. What worked for us was:

- Throw out *everything* they could possibly have infested, including unopened packets of nuts. (seems like you have this covered)
- Bleach everything (also covered)
- Pheromone traps to break the breeding cycle, these lure and trap the male moths and break the breeding cycle. Need to be replaced after 2 - 3 months.
- Any grains, seeds, meal or flour that come into the house go into the freezer for at least 2 weeks to kill any new sources of infection (flour gets kept in the freezer permanently but I don't bake much)
- Be aware that you will have to wait out a generation so will still see moths about for a few weeks to months. It's unfortunately an ongoing process
- Seal all food in airtight containers, but be aware that they seem to be able to get into some tupperware, so check regularly

God I hate these things. They are called Weevil Moths here, but lets be frank. They are Maggot Moths. Ugh.
posted by arha at 7:39 PM on April 15, 2012

We have had success by throwing out all the likely suspects, then religiously using Pantry Pest traps like this one. But you gotta stay on it.
posted by BlahLaLa at 8:11 PM on April 15, 2012

Go through everything. Put any grains in a jar or ziplock bag. Pasta, instant mashed potatoes, even things that should be sealed, like muffin mix. They'll chew through thin plastic or waxed paper. I've had them in boxed rice pilaf and again in birdfeed. Be thorough and paranoid. You can waste a lot of food on the damage they cause.
posted by theora55 at 8:15 PM on April 15, 2012

Pantry moths suck. arha has the right idea; the "freeze things" is pretty important.

Also seal *everything*. They got in my chocolate. (That was when it was war). I like glass containers with screw-on tops that seal well (also these are transparent, so I can figure out where the heck things are).

Once the scourge is gone, don't let up. Keep freezing anything new, keep everything sealed. If you live in a region with good conditions for them, you might be fighting this war for the long term.

Moving to Michigan apparently has erased them from my kitchen; it's such a blessing not to have to pour cereal, pasta, nuts, chocolate, dried fruits, etc into their own individual glass containers all the time.
posted by nat at 8:27 PM on April 15, 2012

When I had an infestation like yours, I thought I'd thrown out all possible food that they could be eating, but they were still around. After months of frustration, I found a box of crackers in another cupboard I'd forgotten about, and they were feasting on that. Once I threw that out, they were gone for good. So, my suggestion is to search high and low, far and wide, for any possible remaining home for the little monsters. Search and destroy!
posted by exphysicist345 at 8:50 PM on April 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

Everything goes in the fridge or freezer: cereal, cornmeal, rice, bread, flour. My housemates think I'm crazy, but: no weevils, no moths!
posted by fiercecupcake at 9:32 PM on April 15, 2012

All advice above is good, eliminating / controlling food sources is crucial. It took us two summers, but we were ruthless and finally succeeded. We had special spatulas designated as moth crushers, and would go around on a daily basis trying to smush them or slap them out of midair.

That said, while you have to get rid of the moths, DO NOT forget about the larvae (i.e. maggots / worms), they can hide just about anywhere! We had larvae on our ceiling that we noticed when we moved in, but didn't realize they were moth larvae until the moths appeared everywhere. In going after the larvae, we found them everywhere, including behind a makeshift pantry shelf built by the previous tenants, as well as growing / cocooning in the curtains of the living room and the old wooden blinds of the summer porch. Once we eliminated all the possible places the larvae / pupae were hiding, we became moth free.
posted by grog at 9:32 PM on April 15, 2012

If you want to bring all possible guns to bear no matter what, you can also declare a (temporary) ceasefire on spiders.
posted by -harlequin- at 10:41 PM on April 15, 2012 [1 favorite]

They can infest your herbs, believe it or not. It's so gross. Check EVERYTHING. Twice. And once it's over, don't put anything grainy in your pantry without having it in the freezer for a week first.
posted by Addlepated at 10:47 PM on April 15, 2012

I know I mentioned pheromone traps before, but I thought I'd add: when the moths first showed up, I declared total war on them. Sealed everything I could, threw out stuff, froze stuff. There always seemed to be another generation. The pheromone traps were what finally broke the cycle. Now I can be less than 100% diligent about putting everything away, and I haven't seen the creeps in years.

If they show up again, it's traps and strict cleanup once more.

When I needed to seal everything up, I dropped a ton o' cash at The Container Store on clear plastic sealable containers (6 or 8 qt) and bigger lidded bulk storage bins for my sugar and flour and rice.

The 6 - 8 qt containers fit on my shelves, and are much easier than putting everything in its own ziploc bag or jar. The lids have gaskets and latches.
posted by zippy at 12:19 AM on April 16, 2012

We spent a horrible saturday fighting these buggers about a year ago.

All of the above.

We also:

Froze all of our Tupperware for 24 hrs post boiling/bleaching because we read somewhere that that would help, too...may have been overkill, but that's better than underkill.

When searching everything, look under the little rims of plastic containers and also look for anything that looks a bit webby, too.

Good luck and Godspeed.
posted by man down under at 1:39 AM on April 16, 2012

Check and throw out everything else they could possibly be on. When I had an infestation I found them in a container of sesame seeds, a container of seaweed/sesame seasoning, under the cardboard top of a box containing a k-cup coffee maker, etc. Just getting rid of flour and cereal won't do it.
posted by olinerd at 4:58 AM on April 16, 2012

They don't actually need to live in food, as long as they have access to it. A bit of spilled flour in a crevice is enough for them. They can also pupate in cracks or under shelves where you don't see them. I threw out open products, sealed others in ziplocks, and then sprayed insecticide in my pantry and around the kitchen, looking carefully for cocoons (they look like grains of brown rice wrapped in white silk). It worked.
posted by Joe in Australia at 6:26 AM on April 16, 2012

Ask a Clean Person at the Hairpin has a comprehensive plan of action for pantry moths.

In addition to detailed advice, plenty of Hairpin snark.
posted by ohshenandoah at 10:50 AM on April 16, 2012

Bug bombs. It takes a bit of work to set up for but they will eradicate your moths. Here is my AskMe about it.

Pantry moths are incredibly difficult to get rid of. Those little guys can live and thrive on just the dusty particles of dry goods. I agree with all of the above advice, especially for maintenance, but to be completely rid of them I suggest bombing.
posted by snsranch at 3:59 PM on April 16, 2012