Weevils in flour

[Bluebell99]

Was just about to bake some banana muffins when I found weevils (think that's what they are - little bugs) in my flour. In the sealable Homepride flour too. Whad should I do? So I need to throw all the flour out? What about sugar? Thanks

[Oldlady52]

Did you have your spex on?

[SinicalSal]

urgh. I think I'd notice mini scorpions but I bet the tiny ones went into todays bread.

[AngelDog]

Ugh, I just found a couple of the tiny ones (psocids) inside a (recipe) book in our spare room. Hope we don't have an infestation there too.

[WhoKnowsWhereTheTimeGoes]

We've had the weevils, they were about half a cm and looked like tiny scorpions. We think they came into the house in bird seed which we used to keep on the floor inside the back door in one of those tupperware cereal pourer things, it was absolutely crawling, but we actually first noticed one in a packet of lasagne sheets in a cupboard right across the kitchen. We found them in every single cupboard in the whole kitchen. We cleared, cleaned and bleached, they have never come back (we never keep bird seed in the house now).

I keep all the dry stuff either in Lock and lock boxes or sealed in freezer bags now, and do a regular clear out of old stuff.

[SinicalSal]

ew I suspect we've eaten weevily bread then.

[starfishmummy]

Weevils can be wuite large. These could be flour mites which are quite common and tiny.

[ExpensivePants]

I get the little buggers regularly. Despite cleaning, throwing out older flour, airtight containters etc, they always come back...usually when I've just creamed the butter and the sugar

[AngelDog]

Weevils are bigger than psocids. The smallest psocids I had were about 1/2 a millimetre, the small ones maybe 1/4 a millimetre. The weevils were probably more like 1-2mm long.

[Catsmamma]

no, seriously...I have never seen them!

and I sieve flour and everything! I googled to see how big they were, I would have noticed them, really I would!

[MyChildDoesntNeedSleep]

I've just Googled. Ahh.

[MyChildDoesntNeedSleep]

Are weevils like silverfish?

[Iggly]

[Thistledew]

SinicalSal- I do apologise. DP is away and I have no one else upon whom I can inflict my penchant for bad puns.

[AngelDog]

I'd heard to freeze the flour for 3 days.

One other thing is that weevils and similar critters like food and moisture so nicely washed shelves will still entice them back. The best thing to do is to dry off your shelves with a hairdryer after you've finished cleaning them so there aren't any damp nooks & crannies.

They like things other than flour & rice - we had some in bags of nuts.

Weevils are longer animals, and some are quite big - you'd notice them if they were moving. Others are called psocids and are very small - I wouldn't have spotted them unless I'd looked for them moving.

Keep checking the shelves on a regular basis. I had some recently and cleaned everything, but it turned out they were living on the floor. They do seem to be gone now though.

Lock & lock boxes are good - but only if you remember to close the lid after you've used them. We had to throw out half our food which was in (unsealed) lock & lock boxes.

[MindyMacready]

They come with the flour. Freeze the flour for 24 hrs, then store. Job Done!

[SinicalSal]

Thistledew

I suspect that whole post is a load of bolleaux in order to get that punchline in

[CaptainMartinCrieff]

catsmamma you've probably just not noticed them... They sometimes are already in the flour when you purchase it.

[Thistledew]

Apparently there are two types of weevils, big ones and small ones. The smaller ones are even said to enhance the flavour of your bread, so some people don't bother chucking the flour. It really is the lesser of the two weevils.

[SinicalSal]

Would you definitely notice them though.
DH says he found weevils in the flour once - he just chucked out the packet and we never cleaned out the press. I'm paranoid now that every other packet is infested also.
boaky buns

[alemci]

I had them years ago. I always keep my flour in tupperware and have never had any problems

[GrimmaTheNome]

I had weevils once - since then I put flour bags into large ziplock bags (or a normal freezer bag with clippit) - takes less room and cheaper than storage containers.

[Mousey84]

I would say its in case the paper bag sticks into the ice and rips when you remove it! I bought loads of the IKEA glass jars and they were rubbish - ended up with glass flakes in one lot of flour! I just use lock and lock now.

[Iggly]

Oooo good tip! Will try that!

[CaptainNancy]

freezer bag just to protect from frost damage I think... though tbh I leave the flour in there when I put it into the cupboard, as then I have no little flour spills to wipe up.

[Catsmamma]

I have never had weevils! NEVER

and i keep flour for aaaaaaaaaages!