Ugh! My food cupboards are full of beetle things!

[marthamoo]

Yuck, yuck, yuck. My food cupboard (dry goods type stuff - flour, sugar, dried fruit, pasta, pulses etc) is infested with small reddish brown beetles, about 3-4 mm long. Also....double urrggghhh...larvae, like tiny beige caterpillars some of which are almost a centimetre long. I have thrown away everything that's open (and quite a bit that isn't) vacuumed out the cupboards, checked everything else I can find for bugs...is there anything else I can do? I have insecticide for when the ants come in the summer but it isn't food-safe so I don't want to spray it in the cupboards.

I feel ill. I have had flour mites before but they have been localised to one package - these were on the shelves and in various packets of food. How can I not have noticed them?

Is moving house too drastic a response, d'you think ?

you utter slovern

Uggggghhhhhhh! Gross!

Suzy, you will make me cry...my baby's going to pre-school for the first time in 3/4s of an hour and I'm a slattern with buggie cupboards.

we had them once when we lived in london

we got environmentl health in

well we've got tiny moths in our pantry so don't worry, I 'm sure ds2 won't mention your infestation to his new mates's mothers who in turn will not point and titter at you behind your back at picking up time

I think they are grain weevils. I have chucked everything out, cleaned cupboards in a manic fashion, and will leave them empty for a few days. Don't know what we're going to eat - have no flour, pasta, rice, noodles etc etc etc. Big online shop coming up I reckon. According to the internet this is the way to go - chuck everything out and be scrupulous about keeping stuff in airtight containers. Oh and eating them won't do us any harm - so that's reassuring, isn't it?

we had weevils a while ago

the world was circumnavigated on a diet of weevils - extra protein

Yup sound like weevils. I've had them too. Only solution is to throw it all away and start again. Get some of those airtight storage jars and put flour, pasta etc in those. I also found they liked damp so try and keep these things in the driest possible place.
It's the grubs which really make you shudder isn't it?

Dp (ex pest controller) said, wipe the cupboard out with diluted bleach solution once you have got rid of them all.

Once the stuff is back in your cupboards (assuming you will ever use that cupboard again )then make sure you rotate the stuff regulalry and check it regularly, even putting in air tight container you can still get them.

It's best to buy it as needed if you can.

You have to hoover the cupboards out thoroughly or the horrid cereal beetles will be back.

put a bay leaf in any opened packets of flour etc, it keeps weevils out.

weevils is a fantastic comedy word....

Thanks for all that. Will do all of it!

I have decided weevils are quite cathartic really. My cupboards are now spartan and minimalist instead of being stuffed with weird and wonderful ingredients I bought for a specific recipe and only used once.

Dh keeps singing, "weevils wobble but they don't fall down."

This makes me laugh but then I'm weevily pleased.

cupboard moths, apparently suzywong

aaaaaaaaaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhh

run away.

dont go back

yuck yuck yuck

I'm phoning social services.

just resurrecting this cos a search on the subject found me this thread.

having totally cleaned out cupbords in january and put things in plastic etc etc, they're back though not in my cupboards, the bloody things keep crawling accross the ceiling. and last night i dropped a box of choccies on living room carpet and in the ensuing debris 2 of the buggers appeared on the carpet. i thought they didn;t do chocolate. having only just calmed down about the kitchen i am now concerned they'll infest my carpet/sofa or something. we hoovered up immediately last night, and think only 2 did come out, but oh god i feel so dirty!!

rant over. any advice from you experts pleeeeeeease!!