To be upset that I have found flour mites in my flour???

[PreciousPuddleduck]

Started to make some bread this afternoon & discovered these critters & am slightly freaked out. Had a massive cleaning sesh & have thrown out lots

YA all BU. The larvae are in everything, just store your flour in airtight plastic tubs or bags or in the freezer, and they won't hatch.

They are harmless. You all eat the larvae anyway without noticing every time you put any baked goods into your mouth, sieving the walking ones out doesn't change anything.

Here, have a good and a to settle your stomachs.

mmm bay leaf brownies, Badgers

Lego what a BUMMER grrrrr

Lived in a Nigerian village for 2 years. This was a day to day reality. Not a big deal to be honest

Ah just a bit of protein, no harm

Adorabell
My neighbour keeps telling me that DD2 needs to eat a peck of dirt, she got a fair way into it by around August...

I have no idea why or if it is coincidental but I discovered that I never got any in the bags I left a metal spoon in.

what the hell is all this about a peck of dirt????

A peck is a measurement, quite large but I don't recall How large. It basically means To chillax about having everything spotless and germ free.

Flour lives in the freezer here as well, until the package is opened and emptied into a snap lock container.

It is frustrating, but not much else you can do.

Good grief. I have never heard of this. Just got my flour out the cupboard to check it! Looks mite free.

I got them in my rice the other day. I know you can wash it and skim the bugs out but really!! My rice is in the freezer now. I guess it's one good thing about winter. Fewer bugs bleugh!

It's put me off Mimolette for sure.....

What doesn't kill fattens... Or so they say.

I must be Honest it doesn't really bother me. Unless you never eat out and never buy shop made bread or pastries then you've eaten them already.

I must be a filthy wotsit then because I'd ignore them and just use the flour Fascinating little critters

I had them and was purposely ignoring them, but they reached such a large colony size that every time I lifted a tea cup there would be 4 or 5 of the little bastards in it so it was time to clear out all the cupboards, dump the flour and decontaminate. All dry goods now spend 2 days in the freezer in quarantine and are kept in clipped bfreezer bags (bless those ikea airtight bag clips)

We used to call them weevils. Haven't had them for years but remember them as a child. They are harmless, you can sieve them out or freeze flour etc to kill them. They used to be very common, my Grandma said during the war all flour had them - a bit of extra protein! If I found them now I would bin the flour though as I'm veggie so rather squeamish about eating bugs (although as a pp said much of our food will contain some sort of bug or insect you just can't see it like you can with weevils.)

Can you definitely notice them? I just scrunch the top of my flour bags and leave them in the cupboard- never had anything like this?

What.....no....how....my flour, rice, wine too new.....please...no. (last seen heading towards the kitchen to check for wee beasties....)

Eww Ive never checked my flour. I have four bags in the pantry, they are still sealed and each in a plastic bag (tied at the top). Do I need to open them and sift it all and seal them again?

Yes you can spot them easily. If you put a handful of flour on the table you will see it move! They have always been in flour and always will be, we just usually eat the flour before they hatch. No need to worry.

Lots of my dried things live in old formula tubs now, since I had to bin loads of stuff over the summer. It wouldn't be so bad if they just infested the flour but the little fuckers get into everything

WT? this is going to sound absurd but i'm a baker for a living and I have never heard of flour mites?!?!! i feel ill!!

Just fling them out, no biggy. Not like mice or rats

I would guess if you're a baker for a living you go through it too quickly for mites to settle.

I bake quite a lot as well so I wonder if this is why I haven't had them? Also, do they need "access" or to they grow from... invisible spores? (I Am Not A Scientist)

In all my years of baking (20) I have only found them once.

DH thought I was over reacting as I insisted on removing everything from the cupboard and disinfecting it before we went out for the day.

Come to think of it, it was back in the days when I insisted everything was organic.

When I was a child, my mother wouldn'tn have freaked. We always had black bits in our food, and silver fish a plenty in our pantry.