Flour weevils. On a scale of 1-screwed, how bad is it?

[AintNobodyHereButUsChickens]

Always knew it was a risk keeping the flours in their paper bags but I’ve never found containers that will fit on my cupboard shelf. After 15 years of being lucky, it finally happened. I found the little bastards in a bag of plain flour, then 2 bags of SR flour, then cornflour… I’ve thrown them all away. The icing sugar seems fine (it was on a different shelf, if that makes a difference?) the cocoa powder and milkshake powders also seem to be clear (they are in tubs though).

Do I need to deep clean the kitchen? Are they still lurking in the cupboard or are they gone? I don’t really know much about them tbh.

1. Just throw out the flour and give the inside of the cupboards a clean. They're harmless.

I've had them a couple times but only in flour. I just chucked the packet away and they didn't seem to linger or come back. It was about 15 years apart the incidence of them.

I'm a bit of a lazy minger though. So maybe just clean the cupboard out. But not the whole kitchen I don't think.

Clear out everything flour based - check any unsealed pasta, couscous, biscuits etc - and clean all your cupboards.

Then buy new.

Funnily enough I found some last night, in a tub of flour that was not particularly new. Binned it (and the tub which appeared not to have a seal any more) but I daresay the flour would have been fine to cook with if I hadn't found another tub.

Btw they won’t hurt you, I’ve accidentally baked bread with them, extra protein

if there’s spilt flour clean the shelf. Most kitchen cupboard shelves can be altered height wise

@AintNobodyHereButUsChickens
use polythene zip loc bags big enough to put the whole bag of flour in, that will keep the little beasties out in future 🐛

Sorry to say they can travel quite a distance, OP, we had them a couple of years ago and found them in every room of the house.

Edited to add that they were rice weevils, hopefully for you flour weevils are less adventurous.

I’ve had them twice. Both times they’d spread from organic flour to bags of corn flour, pasta, oats! Had to ditch the lot. Now I keep everything in plastic zip locks which I reuse for each new paper bag of flour.

They didn’t bother me as much as the mice we had growing up

Also deep clean your food area/pantry. Mine were having a party underneath the shelves!

Makes sure there’s no steam near the cupboard, eg kettle. That solved it for us.

Clean the cupboards and buy jars with lids. I tend to buy bags of flour that fit the jars rather than huge ones as I don't want it to happen again!