Meet the Other Phone. Flexible and made to last.

Meet the Other Phone.
Flexible and made to last.

Buy now

Please or to access all these features

Housekeeping

Find cleaning advice from other Mumsnetters on our Housekeeping forum.

What are these bugs in my kitchen?

18 replies

Laura032004 · 19/08/2007 20:56

I've found about 5 of them in the last day. They're really tiny - about the size of two grains of sugar - smaller than a grain of rice. They're beige coloured, and move really quickly. I've found a couple on the sides, and just found one in a cupboard. Please don't tell me that they're carriers of any horrible diseases . My kitchen is usually quite clean - nothing Kim and Aggie would worry about at any rate.

OP posts:
nell12 · 19/08/2007 20:57

They sound like flour mites>

PestoMonster · 19/08/2007 20:58

dettox spray everywhere!

cousinsandra · 19/08/2007 20:59

or weevils - they sometimes pop up in old flour or other dry ingredients?

Laura032004 · 19/08/2007 21:05

That might be it then - I've recently switched from a sugar jar with a screw top lid, to one of these where you turn it upside down and a measured dose comes out. Presumably some is leaking a bit as that's the cupboard they're in. It also houses all the cereals - I keep them in their bags with a clip on the top (I take them out of the cardboard box to save space).

I once complained to weetabix after finding lots of flour weevils in my weetabix. They said that they were harmless once cooked, but gave me a £5 voucher (for weetabix!) as compensation.

So if they are weevils, are they harmless? I can see an excuse for more Tupperware..... (and the end of my lovely new sugar dispenser!)

OP posts:
scienceteacher · 19/08/2007 21:08

Could they be silver fish? Wide at the head and tapering to a narrow tail?

southeastastra · 19/08/2007 21:08

baby cockroaches

handlemecarefully · 19/08/2007 21:17

Definitely flour weevils. Not harmful but not nice.

Everything out of your cupboards. Clean up any traces of flour /dried food. Chuck out empty packets

handlemecarefully · 19/08/2007 21:17

I meant chuck out 'open' packets

handlemecarefully · 19/08/2007 21:21

www.kendall-bioresearch.co.uk/domest.htm#flour

any of these?

Thinking your desription sounds more like the rice weevil

LIZS · 19/08/2007 21:23

Are they the things that turn into maggots ? We have some beige fly like things which seem to like flour and cereals . Have had them on and off for several years and in 3 different properties.

LIZS · 19/08/2007 21:25

bleugh, apparently ours are the meal, flour and wax moths .

geekgirl · 19/08/2007 21:25

they do sound just like flour mites - as already said, chuck everything and vac your cupboards/drawers

Laura032004 · 19/08/2007 21:36

Not silverfish I don't think - remember them from the bathroom at school [uuurrgghh]. Southeastastra - were you joking? I hope so!!

Those pictures have made me really itchy! They're so tiny that you can't see any distinguishing features really. Will have to study the next one! They're just a tiny spec, but they move, so you know it's not just a crumb.

DH out at work tonight, but will be giving that cupboard a good going over tomorrow.

OP posts:
cousinsandra · 19/08/2007 22:20

yuck - just chuck out containers with weevils and those close by (they seem to be able to lie dormant for quite a while) and start again. Unfortunately airtight lids don't seem to be any protection. However the flour our weevils appeared in was quite old

Laura032004 · 20/08/2007 07:07

My mum lives in Cyprus, and she gets weevils in all sorts of things. Often when she buys flour, it will already have weevils in it. She always sieves flour with a fine sieve to check.

OP posts:
LIZS · 20/08/2007 18:25

Had over a dozen maggotty things on our ceiling this morning, bleugh . Big cupboard clear out tomorrow methinks.

Laura032004 · 20/08/2007 20:22

Poor you

OP posts:
LIZS · 21/08/2007 16:46

Cupboard done, breadbin done , open flour etc discarded.

New posts on this thread. Refresh page
Swipe left for the next trending thread