Be careful how you store petfood and birdseed..expensive moth infestation

[evenhope]

We have 3 cages of pet birds in our living room. Several times we have seen small moths fluttering up from the seed bag and not really taken much notice. Now we have a bad infestation of Indian Mealmoths from a batch of seed we bought several months ago and it is costing us over £300 to have Rentakil out to fumigate the house

Apparently they can also come into the house in large bags of dog food too. The chap advised that any seed or meal animal products are stored in a garage/ shed or other outbuilding and not in the house.

[Chirpygirl]

Oh god evenhope, that's my worst nightmare!
I have 3 cages in my living room as well, and the seed is stored in the plastic bag it comes in next to the cages.
Many years ago I bought a box of seed and it had worms in, I freaked out and check all my seed thoroughly but am tempted at the mo to buy a small bin. They sell them in Pets at Home for dog food and they coem with a scoop. Logic for me then is I can scoop seed into bin and check it as it goes in.

Problem is I do have a garage but it is not exactly dry, and is at the bottom of the garden, and DH has the only key for the padlock on the inside door so I can't exactly use that!

[Chirpygirl]

Out of curiousity what sort of birds do you have? I have lovebirds at the mo but have had zebra finches, cockatiels and canaries (not at the same time though....)

[beautifulgirls]

Bins are good so long as you turn the foods over in a reasonable time. Most of these problems happen when foods are kept for a long time as things hatch out in there - so you can check all the food as it goes in and then a few months later get the problem emerge that you had no idea about.

Make sure the birds are well out of the way when you fumigate - they can be especially sensitive to these sorts of chemicals.

[LadyTophamHatt]

what are indian mealmoths???

[sparklygothkat]

that happened to us, from hamster food, was only 2 weeks old, and think it must have been bad before we brought it

[brimfull]

storing pet food in the garage will attract rats and mice though.

[evenhope]

We have 2 cockatiels and 2 lovebirds (had 2 pairs of lovebirds but one of each has died )

We used to buy the seed loose from bins at the local petfood place. Apparently it was already infested when we bought it and the eggs hatched out. We also used to just keep it in the plastic bag next to the cages. Now we've switched to buying sealead bags from a different shop and putting it straight into a platic container with a lid.

Mealmoths here but warning- not pretty!