Tommy Joe wrote:
> On Aug 19, 9:46 am, Ad > wrote:
>
>> I've had the same problem. I think the moth eggs were already in your
>> flour to begin with. It mainly means you bought a natural product.
>> Maybe you can freeze the flour or buy less of it, so the eggs don't
>> get a chance to hatch.
>
>
> Living alone I don't keep a lot of stuff around other than pasta
> and beans and rice in a cabinet. I started seeing moths hanging
> around and when I'd open the door they'd be all over in there.
> They're strange moths, pretty slow. Just as the original poster I
> suspected they were invading my grains, but in time I learned they
> came from the grain itself.
>
> Here's how I found out for sure. I got so tired of the moths
> hanging around for months that I finally bought a few large plastic
> container to put my rice and beans in. I threw out all older bags,
> which to be safe was most of them, even if they weren't out of date.
> I put what was left in the containers and the moths seemed to
> disappear, at least from the cabinet.
>
> Then one day I pulled out a jar of white rice, about half full -
> and noticed as I shook the jar a small dark lump in the rice. I shook
> it again to get a clearer view at which time I noticed a fully grown
> moth flying around in the still closed container. I doubted it got in
> there when I made the switch from bags to jars, so I assumed at that
> point that the batch of white rice I had was contaminated even from
> the store. I know everything is alive, that unseen germs live on
> everything, so it's not like I'm shocked by it or anything, but I
> really believed in the beginning that the moths invaded from outside
> when really they were being hatched from within. Sort of almost like
> the way problems spring up in life and we see them as coming from
> outside when really they come from within.
>
> Lesson Learner #1
> TJ

I have not had the moths but my parents have. I did get weevils a few
months ago and I am sure that they came from the product, whatever it was.
I couldn't tell because it was in a plastic sandwich bag and there were so
many weevils in there that they had eaten pretty much all that was in there.

Luckily I discovered them before they had spread to other products but then
I inadvertendly spread them because I didn't see that a few had migrated to
other bags of stuff. I had placed those bags on the floor and then they got
on my throw rug.

I immediately threw out everything that was in that cupboard, cleaned it
well, treated it with bug spray and then let it air out for a couple of
weeks. I have since relined it. And everything that is in there has been
put in a thick plastic container. I bought the minimum of most things when
I restocked. Such as flour and sugar. We rarely use those things anyway.

Now my bean/rice/pasta cupboard is another matter. I do love the rice that
comes in the jugs but it is very expensive. So after we use that up it will
just be bags of rice and beans which I don't normally keep a large stock of.
Normally I would buy those as needed. But with my husband retiring I feel
the need to stockpile. I also have plenty of pasta. I used to keep my
beans in canning jars with purchased plastic lids. But I found that they
didn't get used that way and I didn't have the pull date.