How to get rid of moths in the kitchen forever

Moths in the kitchen is not only flying moths and their pupae, larvae and eggs.

So, to bring the pests forever, we need to fight them complex to find and eliminate the source, clean furniture/ceiling, throw away everything that was contaminated and handle potentially contaminated products.

Food moths can be of different types. Most often, the kitchen in a city apartment you can find: flour moth, a little less — the cocoa pod borer (very similar to a mole) and the South barn moth (the fight against it are difficult for others). Where do they come from, even in the cleanest of kitchen cabinets?





Tiny, almost invisible eggs come into the kitchen in the packaging of cereals, grains, Gallet, dried fruit, flour, spices and other groceries. Then within weeks of them hatch into larvae food moth, which subsequently pupate and turn into moths.

In this article you will find step by step instructions on how to get rid of food moths what preventive measures to take to avoid its recurrence and how to save the products if they throw a pity.

Step 1. Looking for hearth and your products

Moth eggs look like tiny white specks stuck together, like semolina. At first larvae are small whitish worms, and then they grow up to 1.27 cm and have black or brown head. Another clear sign of infection of food – webs as in the photo below.





Oatmeal infested by moths

To get rid of food moths the first thing you need to spend:

1. Inspection of kitchen cabinets and products. Inspect all supplies stored in the kitchen cupboards – you need to find not only the source, but are already infested with larvae and eggs products.

• Don't forget to check and unpacked the groceries, because the mole easily eats cardboard, polyethylene and aluminium foil.
  
  
• Pay special attention to the edges of the lids of the jars – they can be gossamer moths.
  
  
• Remember that the infected can be not only grocery, but also a forage for animals, seed for birds, bait for fishing, that is almost everything that is not stored in the refrigerator.
  
  

2. Inspection of the ceiling. Ceiling, ceiling skirting, edges of Wallpaper and the base of the chandelier. Mole likes to hide in dark crevices and corners.

3. Inspection of the upper cabinets. Here you can also see the cocoons of the moth.

By the way, if you are in doubt at all in your kitchen moths, say, or whether to withdraw it after cleaning, inspect the premises at night the adults would gather around the lighted lamps.

 

Step 2. Spend a total sweep

1. Eliminate the source and products with obvious signs of infection. Once you find which product was the source of the spread of the insect, wrap it in a plastic bag and immediately throw away, and better and burn.

2. Do a thorough cleaning. Empty the kitchen cabinets and remove shelves and then vacuum clean them and the inner wall of the Cabinet, paying special attention to corners and crevices.

A vacuum cleaner (without a nozzle or with the little head) will tighten hid moth and will not give unobtrusive the balls to stay in the closet. This method is very effective, so if you have no vacuum, it should ask friends. Most importantly after the procedure, throw away the bag or freeze it in the freezer for 3-4 days.

Next, wipe the furniture with a solution of vinegar, soap and/or by means of a special food moths, for example, anti moth or Raptor.

3. Wash all containers and jars. You can do this vinegar solution or soap. Packaging, which were contaminated foods should be frozen for 3-4 days or to warm up in the microwave for 5 minutes.

4. Vacuum the ceiling. If you have found out settlements of moths on the ceiling, the ceiling moldings, the tops of the cabinets, near the chandeliers and under the edges of the departed Wallpaper, you vacuum these places.

 

Step 3. Kill the adults and putting up traps

How to catch the adults that are already scattered in the corners of closets and kitchen? Males (by the way, harmless, but fertilizing females) can be caught with glue traps (photo below). Its principle of operation is simple — treated females pheromone trap attracts the males and "catches" them, but no males to breed the moths, of course, can not. Thus, pheromone traps will help to prevent insects.





Glue trap

Females will have to kill by traditional methods – a fly swatter or rolled up newspaper, as they fly low and slow, to make it not so difficult.

 

Step 4. Treated potentially contaminated products

So you threw away the product-source and products with obvious signs of infection, and what to do with the rest of the supplies that appear clean or have been infected slightly?

Easiest way to throw, but if you want potentially contaminated food you can save in two ways:

• Previously passed and moved cereals, flour or other product, will keep it in the freezer or on the balcony (in winter) at least 3-4 days.
  
  
• Vysypat product on a baking tray, heat it in the oven at 60 degrees not less than 40 minutes. Before heating it, of course, you need to clean.
  
  

Keep in mind that the first processing method, though longer, but it keeps all the vitamins and nutritional properties of food.

 

Step 5. Take preventive measures and protect products

1. New or treated with cold/warm food (including animal feed) you need to pour in a glass, thick plastic or metal containers/cans with tight-fitting lids. This will protect supplies from the penetration of the moth and prevent its escape outside the container. Recall that the cardboard, paper, foil and plastic bags are easily eaten away by it.





How to store groceries

2. In the fight with the moth in the kitchen useful and popular recipe – food storage with natural repellents:

• With a couple of leaves of Bay leaf;
  
  
• With pilled but not cut garlic (enough for a pair of heads);
  
  
• With orange crusts.
  
  

Bay leaves to protect the flour from the moth

3. On the shelves you can also put something of the above, either: sprigs of lavender, birch leaves, geranium, sage, rosemary, soap or strong smelling essential oils. For example, suitable fir oil, which can moisten a cotton pad and leave it in the closet.

Remember that these folk remedies deter adult moths, not allowing her to lay eggs in food and on the shelves, but the larvae they will not work. Moreover, if on the shelf with the lavender you suddenly put a package contaminated cereals, the larvae of the moth it will not die and butterflies, which will appear later, will not be afraid of the smell of lavender. Therefore, to deal with domestic pests is necessary in a complex.

 

A bit more about the prevention

The following tips will help you avoid re-occurrence of moles:

• Try to keep the products accumulating over 2-4 months, and of course, don't store supplies shelf life left.
  
  
• Products that you rarely use, store in the refrigerator.
  
  
• Buy dry foods in a small amount to be able to eat them within a couple of months.
  
  
• Buy groceries only from reputable manufacturers and check the quality of goods in the store. To be sure svejesobranna cereals, grains, flours, nuts, dried fruits and other foods to freeze for 3-4 days (dry).
  
  
• Animal feed, for example, seeds for the birds or, say, bait for fishing, keep in the kitchen.published
  
  

​

 



5 forgotten SAFE eco-friendly detergents for washing dishes

How to get rid of pesticides in fruits and vegetables: recommendations of the farmer

 

 



Source: kitchendecorium.ru/poryadok/mol-na-kuhne.html