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You can also mitigate pantry moths by rotating all their potential food sources (like flour) through the freezer for a few days to kill any eggs and larvae that
by arijun 3y ago
You can also mitigate pantry moths by rotating all their potential food sources (like flour) through the freezer for a few days to kill any eggs and larvae that might be there. If I see a moth I will try to hunt down which food it came from (you can sort of identify by seeing webbing which suspends bits of whatever they’re eating), and toss it. And then everything else goes in the freezer to stop it from propagating.
The other option is to put things individually into well-sealed tubs or jars, to isolate any moths that might be there (they will drill a hole through thin plastic, like ziplock)
Honestly the trap method makes me a bit squeamish; if you’re continuously catching new moths, that means there're still eggs and larvae in at least one of your bags of food. The idea of eating that is a bit disturbing is to me.
- iJohnDoe 3y agoThe traps are there to help as well. Highly recommend. You still have to find the source as you describe. However, if one of the moths flys out and away from the cupboard, they still might lay eggs some where else. You want the new hatchlings to go straight to the trap and get stuck.
- Jill_the_Pill 3y agoThey do nest in the cracks between the shelf and the wall, under shelf paper, and even between the pages of cookbooks. We have had some moderate success with the traps, plus storing big bags of rice and flour in picnic coolers and everything else in airtight containers, but they have to be really airtight -- those little buggers can get under the lid of a mason jar or the tops of a canister set. What happens now is like a lesson in public health and contagion: one container will occasionally get a mess of webs and moths, but the scope is limited.
- morsch 3y agoThese traps are sold here explicitly not as a solution to the moth problem, but as a way to determine when you have a problem.