Bugs in flour?

[MDM]

Does anyone know how the little bugs grow in the flour that's well within it's bb date (April 2013) and has been in a sealed container?

What are they? Any way to prevent it?

Weevils.

Chuck it out. Buy more.

Yurk. I hate weevils.

Yes weevils. No idea how they get there although apparently they are completely harmless and flour with them in is fine to eat.

I find using an airtight tin/container helps and obviously using flour in a timely fashion; don't buy a 1.5kg bag if you only use it for cheese sauce etc.

Yup - they're weevils. No way to prevent it as they'll have arrived in the bag of flour you bought. Chuck it and buy more.

Once again, Mumsnet to the rescue! Thanks guys.

They breed when it is damp and warm, so this summer is ideal ( if you're a weevil)
Buy an airtight container.
Or sieve them out... I believe they used to be regarded as extra protein on long sea voyages.

Thanks!

Also, they can spread so you might have to check the other things in the cupboard too. I had them and I sieved everything that was in the cupboard and weeks later found the little feckers in between my cup cake paper thingys. What are they called.

you can get a food mite trap, it's sold on the Moth Killer shelf at Dyas. I think it is a phermone not a poison though as some people are fussy about mixing poisons with food

They say all flour has weevils in it, they will be worse if warm and humid. You can sieve them out, eat them, or throw it away.

If you have anything living in your food cupboard, I would clean it out and spray the shelves with an Ant and Crawling Insect spray and let it dry before putting the food back. You will have to spray again next time you clean the shelves, it leaves a slight film and gets into the crevices.

How big are they? They might not be weevils but something called psosids, which are harmless and you certainly don't need to be using insect sprays or anything nasty in your food cupboard. They are about 1-2 mm long and like to find their way into dry foodstuffs.
It is possible to eradicate them fairly easily.

And yes, I know this becasue we had lots of them at one time. No idea where they came from, they just appeared (and multiplied) in the flour, the cornflour and in the food cupboards. But we got rid of them and haven't seem any for many years now.

I have had this loads of time & they got in everything in the cupboard. Now I have flour & even baking powder in tubs with tight fitting lids. I googled it a while ago & found that in the US people freeze flour to kill them so they can't hatch. I've been doing this & only had it happen once since & that was when I'd not put it in the freezer very long.

I agree withroundabout1, freeze the flour as soon as you buy it. Having had weevils before I now freeze it for 24-48 hours as soon as I get it home from the shops and haven't had any further problems.

I've given that a try this week. But does it kill the eggs?

I think it does, at least that's what Dr Google says I haven't had any problems since.

When it did happen, I binned all my goods from the cupboards and washed them all with a bleach and anti-bac solution. However, ages later I found some in my pasta......yuk!