Since the discovery of the moth population making a home for itself in my pantry I've been pretty busy. The pantry is now completely bare, vacuumed out, and wiped down. DH, the little ones and I went on a shopping expedition yesterday and managed to find several air tight storage bins and containers of various sizes. The paper goods that passed inspection (mainly items I've purchased recently) are in one of the bins and ready to go back in the pantry. I bought several large glass storage jars so those are filling up with rice, pasta, and flour. After stirring them up by moving everything around, I've only seen a couple of moths today, which I vacuumed up, so I'm encouraged.
There's still a lot of work to do so I'm wrapping up the NaBloWriMo post for today; short and sweet so I can get back to the bugs. Shudder...
Showing posts with label moths. Show all posts
Showing posts with label moths. Show all posts
Monday, October 11, 2010
Sunday, October 10, 2010
10/10/10 and Moths
Happy 10/10/10! My brother in law updated his Facebook Status at 10:10 this morning; we slept through it. We'll catch the p.m. version.
In the meantime, we're battling an infestation of some kind of meal moth, either Egyptian or Mediterranean or some such branch of the meal moth family. We've had moths flitting around the house for a few months now but I just kind of shrugged them off; they got in from outside or something, right? Then I started noticing them more consistently, so I knew we had a problem. I went into our pantry and put all of our rice and beans in plastic bins, thinking that would solve the problem. Nope, we still kept seeing the moths. I knew more drastic measures would be needed, but that involves a lot of work, so I blew it off for a while.
Yesterday I finally got around to emptying out our pantry from top to bottom in an effort to get rid of the food source, and hopefully get rid of the moths. Much to my dismay I realized they were in EVERYTHING including the food I put in plastic bins. They are loving the paper products I had stockpiled for hurricanes and parties and such. Paper plates, cups, napkins, and the spork packets with napkins included- all contaminated with the darn bug. Oh, the waste! I had to throw out 3 large garbage bags full of food and paper goods. It's not even donate-able with the bug yuck all over everything. Just kills me, but there's not much choice. I'm at the point now where I'm praying they haven't found my books, but I'm not very hopeful. The adult moths have flown all through the house and the library (converted from what was the formal dining room) is right next to the pantry. I could throw away napkins and paper plates and bags of rice; I can't toss my books!
I don't want to use pesticides but it may come down to that. We've tried so hard to avoid calling an exterminator and using poisons in our home, but I can't have those moths destroying everything either. According to DH's on-line research the moths are about impossible to get rid of. I have no idea what to do next.
Moving has definitely come up for discussion.
In the meantime, we're battling an infestation of some kind of meal moth, either Egyptian or Mediterranean or some such branch of the meal moth family. We've had moths flitting around the house for a few months now but I just kind of shrugged them off; they got in from outside or something, right? Then I started noticing them more consistently, so I knew we had a problem. I went into our pantry and put all of our rice and beans in plastic bins, thinking that would solve the problem. Nope, we still kept seeing the moths. I knew more drastic measures would be needed, but that involves a lot of work, so I blew it off for a while.
Yesterday I finally got around to emptying out our pantry from top to bottom in an effort to get rid of the food source, and hopefully get rid of the moths. Much to my dismay I realized they were in EVERYTHING including the food I put in plastic bins. They are loving the paper products I had stockpiled for hurricanes and parties and such. Paper plates, cups, napkins, and the spork packets with napkins included- all contaminated with the darn bug. Oh, the waste! I had to throw out 3 large garbage bags full of food and paper goods. It's not even donate-able with the bug yuck all over everything. Just kills me, but there's not much choice. I'm at the point now where I'm praying they haven't found my books, but I'm not very hopeful. The adult moths have flown all through the house and the library (converted from what was the formal dining room) is right next to the pantry. I could throw away napkins and paper plates and bags of rice; I can't toss my books!
I don't want to use pesticides but it may come down to that. We've tried so hard to avoid calling an exterminator and using poisons in our home, but I can't have those moths destroying everything either. According to DH's on-line research the moths are about impossible to get rid of. I have no idea what to do next.
Moving has definitely come up for discussion.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)