Have you have ever had the experience of pouring cereal out of a box, into a bowl then had several pieces began to crawl up the side of the bowl? You may have already discovered stored product infesting beetles. Several small insects live and feed on the same foods we eat. Adults of many of these pests fly toward lights and may be found in other rooms or floors quite a distance from your food storage areas. These New Jersey pests do eat at least a small amount of the food they infest, but their presence, their droppings, cast skins, and certain chemical excretions contaminate much more of the food and sometimes cause allergies in those persons who ingest them.

To eliminate these pests you must find the source of the infestation. Check packages you seldom use, items like cereal, grain products, nuts, flour, raisins, spices, dry pet food, and birdseed. Make it a habit to thoroughly inspect all such items when you first bring them home from your grocery store. Pay special attention to all of the same items, and brand names, from the same store where any previous infested items were bought.

Store all susceptible foods in tightly closed containers. You should consider heating or freezing all susceptible food items you have had for 60 days or longer. Heating infested material to at least 140 F degrees for more than one hour will kill all stored product pests. Freezing the food items throughout to 0 F degrees or below for at least 4 days will also kill all life stages.

Indian Meal Moths

Have you recently noticed small moths flying in a zigzag fashion around rooms (kitchens & pantries) in your home and making their way to lights, such as T.V. screens and computer monitors, at night? Or perhaps you’ve seen yellowish larvae (worms) crawling up the walls and suspended from the ceiling attached to a silken thread. The Indian Meal Moth is one of the most common of the pantry pests in the United States.

Damage is caused by larvae biting into packing and spinning silken threads as they feed, in turn webbing food particles together. Besides infesting all cereal food products and whole grains, larvae also feed on a wide variety of foods such as dried fruits, powdered milk, cornmeal, popcorn, flour, raisins, prunes, nuts, chocolates, candies, health food, spices, bird seed, dog and cat food, fish food, graham crackers, dried red peppers, pastas, etc. But, they can also get into seed pod jewelry, potpourri, floral arrangements, wreathes, organic candles and soaps containing things such as dried pomegranates, berries and nuts.

Most homes become infested when adult moths or larvae, ‘hitchhike” inside a package (such as dog food) from the grocery store. Not only homes, but restaurants, grocery stores, warehouses, pet stores, seed companies, mills etc., can become infested. Before purchasing grocery products, always examine foods for infestations. Examine broken and damaged packages and boxes to avoid accidentally bringing these pantry pests into your home.

Ross Environmental Solutions provides fast effective control of these Indian Meal Moths or any other pantry pests. Ross Environmental Solutions has several green pest control options for environmentally responsible pest management.

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