Flour mites

[RainbowRaine]

How do I get rid of them?

I found them on Wednesday in everything, have thrown out all flour and everything else they had got in.

I have cleaned the cupboard 5 times so far and I still keep finding more?

Cupboard is still empty, everything that wasn't infested is cleaned and in a sealed box and on the other side of the kitchen from infested cupboard.

I need to go shopping this evening for replacements but don't want to risk putting anything back in that cupboard yet.

How can I get rid of them once and for all?

I just don't look too closely. If I have any then they get baked into the bread.

They are quite harmless to eat. I guess living in the tropics for many years rather desensitised me to them.

RuledbyASD

Sock is sick

Road is toad

To flight is tonight

For anyone unsure, flour mites are brown and the size of a grain of sand.

I habitually tap my flour, now, to make sure the wholemealy bits don't start moving!

MrsMercedes

I might use some sealant around the inside, bottom of the cupboard tomorrow so there is no where left for them to appear from.

The kitchen is fairly new, so that's something positive.

PickAChew
I will be doing the same from now on.

Keep your new unopened flour in sealed containers in the fridge or freezer. By little and often. The mites are already in the flour when you buy it. You don't see them if you use your flour in a timely fashion!

I've never had these but I've heard about them and I've always been worried about getting them, so absolutely everything is in
Kilner jars. Impenetrable!

I had an infestation of food moths 30 odd years ago. At the time I stored lots of different organic flours and grains in paper sacks in the kitchen cupboard. One day I opened the cupboard and there was a wriggling worm dangling from grey threads under a shelf. I had no idea what it was, or where it had come from, but I grabbed it with a bit of bog paper and flushed it. A few days later they were everywhere, dangling and wriggling inside the cupboard and even hanging from threads around the top of the kitchen walls. Shudder.

I checked inside some of the paper bags and found the organic brown rice and the millet and oats in the bags on either side of it were covered in something that looked like spider webs. Skin crawlingly disgusting.

Everything in the cupboard that wasn't safely sealed inside a tin, bottle or jar went into a plastic sack that was carried out to the recycling shed. I vacuumed and scrubbed the cupboards and kitchen walls. Yet every morning new dangly maggots materialised, seemingly out of thin air. I'm not easily freaked out by the grossness of nature, but there was something horribly sinister about those wriggling maggots rotating on their grey threads. After a week I was getting to a point where turning a flame thrower on the kitchen cupboards was starting to like a sensible option.

So I phoned the council for advice, bought a spray they recommended, shut my cats and dog out in the garden and blitzed the inside of the cupboards with a bug killing spray that left an active, deadly residue on surfaces for 8 weeks, (the kind of stuff the council used on cockroach infestations) to be sure of getting every single hidden hatchling before it had time to start spinning itself a grey thread. I also sprayed the upper parts of the kitchen walls and then aired the kitchen for a couple of hours before allowing the animals back indoors. It was supposed to be safe once the spray had dried. I can't remember what it was called but this stuff seems similar and is supposed to last for 12 weeks. www.pestcontrolsupplies.co.uk/pest-expert-formula-c-food-moth-spray-1l-524-p.asp

After that any grains, flour or powder that came into the kitchen went into air tight containers. At first I used kilner jars and jam jars, but over the years I've accumulated a massive horde of air tight LocknLock containers in different sizes (they do big ones that hold 1.5kg of flour, tall ones for spaghetti, medium sizes for 500g packets of dried beans and rice, right down to small 180ml boxes that are just right for 100g packets of spices).

I still shake the containers sometimes after opening the lids, and watch to see if anything continues moving after it ought to have settled. Anything that looks suspicious goes into the compost bin at the end of the garden. They can dangle and wriggle all they want out there, partying away in the dark with the slugs and woodlice.

Prepare to spend a fortune on lock tight containers and then wait them out. Nothing else works, no matter how many times you clean. #bitterexperience

This happened to me a while ago. The culprit was a bag of bread mix I had bought during lockdown last year.

My flour was in a plastic IKEA tub. Obviously not a great seal. I checked all the packages and discovered the bread mix had loads even though it was unopened and in date.

I only had a few bags of different flours but chucked them all.

I've just been buying smaller bags as needed now. I might need to invest in some more secure containers.

TheNestedIf

Prepare to spend a fortune on lock tight containers

I have, they are ready for my shop arriving today. The only ones I don't have are ones for cereal so will need to find some of them ASAP.

No sign of any new ones this morning, cupboard is still empty so easy to check.

If you mean weevils, just put the bag of flour in the freezer for a while and then sieve the dead ones out.
Had to do this with virtually every bag of flour when living in the Middle East years ago.
They’re not a health hazard BTW.

To get rid of the source I’d empty cupboards and spray with insecticide before leaving them with doors closed for several hours, and hope that would do it.

ooh ooh oooh
Off to examine my flour
will report on return!

They look ok, but I am taking no chances.
Some will be thrown. I dont want any infestation.

@GETTINGLIKEMYMOTHER No not weevils, Flour mites/Grain Mites.

vocal.media/feast/flour-mites-are-a-thing

@lightand if you don't see anything moving, you're in the clear.

As others have said the mite eggs are already in the flour when it comes in the house. Fortunately they had not escaped from the flour bag I found mine inside but I still went mad with the dettol!!

I've had them in cheap and more expensive flour so now any new flour goes into a zip lock bag (much cheaper than containers) and into the freezer for a week, then into the cupboard still in the zip lock bag, and so far no sign of them! Hope yours are gone for good OP!!

You can get weevils from any type of flour...it has nothing to do with 'cheap' flour.

Bleach cupboards well and use bay leaves to prevent another infestation. It sounds strange but it works.

I once ate some thinking they were nutty bits in my cereal. Until they started swimming.

We had cupboard moths. Little wigglers everywhere, and a cloud of fucking tiny moths every time you opened the cupboard. I invested heavily in Kilner jars, and used pheromone traps - it took a few weeks but they did go. Little buggers.

Unfortunately I found about 5 in the cupboard next to the other one.

Luckily nothing in pantry but have put everything in sealed containers anyway.

I have one cupboard left to clear out and clean but it only houses the pots and pans but not leaving anything to chance.

And shopping has just turned up early

I now keep bay leaves in the cupboard to keep them at bay (scuse the pun). Seems to work. And all flour products in sealed ziplock bags.

After you have emptied and cleaned all your cupboards (and removed the kickboards/plinth) you can spray with a hard-surface insecticide. It dries to a lacquer that poisons through their feet. "Dethlac" is a big brand but you can buy a trigger spray for less in hardware stores and supermarts.

You can spray it into cracks, crevice and joints as well

It continues working until you clean again and wash it off.

I'm sure you'll be putting all food in jars or plastic boxes so it will not come into contact with the treated surfaces.

PigletJohn

Thank you, I can't remove kickboards, they have some kind of sealant around them and they were only done in Dec. Can I spray over the sealant? I have Dethlac already.

Everything is already in containers, everything is cleaned, floor vacuumed and mopped, bin changed, dishwasher has done two loads, just need to bag up and dispose of vacuum dust bag, finish cleaning the last side and I can make a start on dinner.

Gastropod
Will get some next time I go supermarket, need to get more storage containers too.

fizzybootlace
Will add ziplock bags to the list

sunnysidegold
How long till you got rid of them all from the cupboards?

Did you ever manage to get rid of the mites? I’ve got the same problem 😩