Food moths: tips and measures
Nobody wants to have food moths in their stores: If you cook every day and like having a well-stocked supply, are interested in spices and cooking trends and also like to shop often, it can happen that not all purchased food before the best before be processed. What is absolutely not a guideline for most foods can have disastrous effects on cereals, rice, tea, chocolate, nuts, flours, gravy binders, dessert soups and sauces. Also, the storage of the? Dry? Food in its original packaging makes it easy for food moths to multiply in the produce.
Food moths:
I became aware of this problem when, as if by magic, some rice grains suddenly hung suspended in the packaging. That seemed strange to me. As I researched later, these are the webs of the larvae.
The majority of my dry supplies were already in metal cans and glasses, but one or the other product that I originally wanted to process in a timely manner, was still in the original packaging a little longer on the storage rack.
Maybe I have brought infested food already by the purchase in the house; where they come from, but does not matter. The important thing is that they have to be removed and completely eradicated.
Tips and measures:
If the food is in a kitchen cabinet / shelf, all shelves should be removed and the entire cabinet and floors washed thoroughly with vinegar cleaner. Then dry well. Since there could be larvae in the predrilled holes for the shelf holders, seal all four pre-drilled lines from top to bottom with a continuous Tesastreifen. For attaching the required shelf board holder, the respective grooving is sufficient with a knife tip.
Now all, really all dry food must be thoroughly examined for infestation. Anyone who is unsure, better disposed of the cheap food such as flour or custard powder.
I also had to dispose of some of the food, most of it was fine, but in the wrong containers: large plastic containers, which do not seem to seal airtight ...
Since I kept many food jars, it was natural to use them for my supplies.
Particularly suitable are larger glasses, z. B.
- Red cabbage and glasses
- Knackwurst glasses
- Olive jars
- Mixed Mushroom glasses
- Bean glasses
To label the glasses, I considered two options:
- Blackboard for supplies that are not always in stock, eg. B. sushi rice (the chalk labeling can be washed off again and again).
- DC fix sticker for permanent / permanent supplies.
The handling:
- On the internet, I chose suitable labels that were printed and cut out.
- I then transferred these to DC-Fix (adhesive foil), glued them on and inscribed them with a waterproof edding.
- For glasses with blackboard, a cut template is glued into the glass from the inside and traced from the outside.
It should be noted that the glasses by the caption Not suitable for use in a dish washer are a Hand wash but survive well.
The tested foods are filled in airtight sealable glasses and placed back on the cleaned shelves.
Info:
In case of detected infestation, but also for precautionary / security, the suspension of sticky traps on.
Food moths are active from March to November. A glue trap works for three months, so I come with the two sealed traps, which are in a pack, well over the year.
The insecticide-free adhesive traps of the company Naturkraft u. a. against dried fruit and flour moths in the following way:
By sex attractants of the female (pheromones), the male food moths are attracted and land on the tape of the trap. The male moths can not fertilize the female, which prevents oviposition. Although you can never be sure that not previously fertilized eggs have been deposited, but the adhesive traps provide a good overview of the infestation. So, even if not immediately after hanging the sticky trap, in the coming weeks / months, it is very easy to see whether the measures taken are effective.
I folded a sticky trap as directed to a triangle. The handling is simple by predetermined kinks. I attached this triangle to the shelf. For my metal shelves, I would have liked a small hanger, because the narrow attachment strip on the metal did not adhere so well. With a little tesa the problem was solved quickly.
Already on the first day, the first shocking result became apparent: a food moth stuck to the glue trap (see picture 2). I assume that she had hitherto successfully hid in the pantry, because so far no other moths followed. That should stay that way and I will use food moth traps now permanently.
Supported by Naturkraft and TheFruitAndFlowerBasket with a free product.
