Kitchen

[x Hedge]

Just found a little bug floating in the cat's water.

    *sigh*   

I was hoping I'd gotten them all, but I guess not.

A few weeks ago I bought 3 or 4 boxes of my fav tea. A few nights ago I opened a box and found several bugs, shed skins, etc inside the box.

The teabags are individually sealed in totally closed, waxed pouches, the bugs were just inside the cardboard box.

So after opening & inspecting all the newly purchased tea, there were bugs in two of the boxes.

These lil guys are small oval, mostly black or drk brown with some red across the center of the body. Never saw them before. Wonder if they're imported from a warehouse  in another part of the country.

Now, I keep this type of stuff isolated in a cupboard that's away from other cupboards. MOST of the stuff in there is either sealed in glass jars or plastic containers. But in haste, I'd tossed the tea boxes up there with a few other unsealed starchy things.

So sure, I was standing up on a chair at midnight, emptying out the entire cupboard so i could remove the shelf paper and inspect/wash the inside of the cupboard.

Threw out split peas, three pasta and a pudding, boxes I'd tossed up there without sealing first

(Peeked in the pudding box, yep, one in there. ewww!!!)

While putting things back in the clean cupboard I spotted a crawler on the counter below the cupboard. Then yesterday I spotted one on the table right next to that.

Ohwa-ugh!  I'm going to be throwing out and scrubbing/laundering EVERYTHING in the kitchen.

I HATE weevels, cupboard crawlers, mothworms, and any other buggy-named thing.

[2blonde]

@x Hedge  Ickkk!  I hate uninvited guests.......especially in my food!  I had a problem with those awful weevils once a long time ago.  I remember opening a box of cake mix to find them in there.  Nothing worse than moving cake mix!  Then I found them on the shelf (it was high, where you wouldn't easily notice anything).  Of course I had to toss everything and clean like you did.  I really think they came as eggs in one of the flower based mixes I had bought, because I never had them again.  Really gross's me out thinking about that.

[hayseed00]

@x Hedge  Years ago my Mom bought a bag of flour and it had pantry moths in it.  She battled those months for two years finally getting rid of them.  She cleaned everything and threw out all open bags of just about everything in our kitchen, and put flour in a glass container.  Mom bought some pantry moth traps at the hardware store which seened to really help get rid of them.

[Nightowlz]

I hate creepy crawlers too. LOL!!! Yuck.

When I woke up this morning there was a dead worm stuck on the tile floor by the garage door. That's a first. Never seen a worm in the house before. I'm wondering how did it get in here? We had rain last night so they are trying to get out of the water. They are always all over our front porch, back patio plus get in the garage & cannot get back out to the grass when it rains.

[Nataliesgramma]

I get ants in my kitchen every Spring....I spread Borax around and that usually gets rid of them...

[2blonde]

@Nightowlz   My tough guy cat takes care of all the mice, and when he sees a bug he puts me on high alert, but I have to take care of those myself.......he just wants to chase them around the house!

[hayseed00]

@2blonde  My older white kitty loves her sky raisins, aka flies, LOL

[jannabelle1]

@Nataliesgramma, thanks for the tip. Within the last 5 days I've had those tiny little ants all around my kitchen window and going onto the counter. I hate those blasted things. I battle them every spring as well, but will look for some Borax next time I'm out.

[homedecor1]

Anything I buy is put in a Lock N Lock especially pastas, chips, cookies, rice, etc.

One time I opened a box of Ronzoni pasta I had a bug in the box🤬😳.  I inspect the food better than the FDA😉.

In my spice cabinet I have bay leaves on the shelves -- no more microscopic bugs.  I found out cayenne and other spices breed these microscopic bugs -- the exterminator told me about the bay leaves.  So far haven't seen any in a long time🤞🏻🤞🏻🤞🏻

[January121]

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@hayseed00 wrote:

@x Hedge  Years ago my Mom bought a bag of flour and it had pantry moths in it.  She battled those months for two years finally getting rid of them.  She cleaned everything and threw out all open bags of just about everything in our kitchen, and put flour in a glass container.  Mom bought some pantry moth traps at the hardware store which seened to really help get rid of them.

@hayseed00  ..... flour should be stored in the refrigerator with a few bay leaves in the bag or container...... you will never have a problem.

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