Evil weevils
 

This is a question for anyone who does a lot of home baking - our resident breadmaker users might well be able to help!

I get tiny weevils in my bags of flour if I keep them in the cupboard for any length of time. What I want to know is, does my kitchen have an infestation, or does every bag of flour come with a free sample of weevils which, if left long enough, will breed in numbers sufficient for me to actually notice them?

Just back off holiday this week and had to throw three bags out. :(

Re: Evil weevils
 

Where do you keep them?If they are just in the cupboard as they are it might be a good idea to place the flour in a clean airtight large plastic container.I had this problem and this was how I sorted it.

Mind I later got an infestation of bluddy slugs but that's another story. :(

Re: Evil weevils
 

Hi Chris

We didn't use our breadmaker for quite a while and we threw out 3 bags of flour 'cos they were out of date.... there were no signs of weevils though.:shrug:

Here's a tip for you :)

Re: Evil weevils
 

That's what i do, and i've never had a problem. Yes even a humble student like me makes his own bread.

Never heard of the bay leaves suggestion. Might be worth a try though

Re: Evil weevils
 

Thanks everyone - keep those tips coming in, especially this kind. Thanks Julian :tu:

Unfortunately one of the flours I threw out was some very nice granary, and it was in an airtight container - yet it is absolutely crawling with the little blighters. :(

Re: Evil weevils
 

Extra protein :shrug: :D

Re: Evil weevils
 

yummy crunchy bits

Re: Evil weevils
 

bloody hell

more bloody hell

:disturbd: :disturbd: :disturbd: :disturbd: :disturbd: :disturbd:

Re: Evil weevils
 

Sounds like contaminated flour. Ewwwwww.

Re: Evil weevils
 

Yes I'd agree.Time to talk to the manager at the place you buy your flour.

Incog. :)

Re: Evil weevils
 

I have a friend who works for a company that makes baking machinery. I remember him saying once that when he visits bakeries that you regularly gets the itchy scratchy moments because you often see lots of weevils in the flour mills.

Im not sure how your getting weevils in your flour though as weevils attack the grain and you would expect them to have been crushed. Are you sure they are Weevils?

Re: Evil weevils
 

Yep - sounds like an issue at the suppliers. We had a problem at work with this, and had to recall a load of products - if the supplier hasn't carried out full hygiene checks, it's possible for the little sods to get through and get all the way to the shop. Mind you, it's got to be said that it's fairly rare for all of your bags to be contaminated, unless they've managed to cross-contaminate while in your cupboard.

Re: Evil weevils
 

From what I have been told , most flour comes with the grubs in, and if you leave it long enough they hatch out & ewww.

As its very cheap your better off getting smaller bags & throwing it away when its at its sell by date.
If you store it in an airtight container & get weevils before the date then see the shop manager.

Re: Evil weevils
 

Same thing happens with those coloured dog biscuits...
Put some in some water, and watch the weevils come crawling out

Re: Evil weevils
 

Well, we didn't have them originally, if you see what I mean, but I guess we're not as diligent as we could be at emptying cupboards for cleaning, so perhaps after one infestation there's always enough of the little sods hanging around to re-infest each bag of flour I buy. :( The ones that infested the airtight container did take a lot longer to get in there than the ones in the regular bags. In fact, the airtight container is sitting next to our sink waiting for me to get round to washing it out properly, so I effectively have a weevil farm. I'm calling them weevils but TBH I don't know exactly what they are. Perhaps I should bring the container to the meet and we can sit around and decide? :D

Re: Evil weevils
 

Do they wobble, but not fall down?


Oh sorry, I'm thinking of something else

Re: Evil weevils
 

As its airtight doesnt that prove they were already in the flour? I suspect they are not weevils. How big are they?

Re: Evil weevils
 

Not if the flour was in the cupboard in its bag for a day before being transferred, or if the container isn't completely airtight ... they are not much more than 1mm long, they wouldn't need a big hole to get through.

Re: Evil weevils
 

Could be these

As the grubs are hard to see (velly velly small) & white.

Maybe its best to empty the entire cuboards, clean them thoruoughly (use hoover too), throw away anthing that looks manky & restock using more airtight containers.

I wish I could get my lot to use airtight containers, but they are too lazy & complain that they take up too much space.
(why can't they make them cerial box shaped instead of oval??)

With your flour, get rid & only get some when you are actually going to use it, then get just what you need or dispose of the leftover packet.
Better still, if you have some left bake a loaf of bread with it etc.

Re: Evil weevils
 

The behaviour sounds right, but the description is not - they are a lot smaller than the ones in your link, and apparently black although it's harder to tell when they're so small.

As for the hygeine advice - yes, I think I'll do that!

Re: Evil weevils
 

i was thinking flour beetle as well. These can be tiny when young

Re: Evil weevils
 

Ewwww you guys are making me feel really really ill :sick: - especially as I just ate a bacon sarnie.

I think I'm gonna go buy some bleach and wash out all our cupboards at home tonight.

Re: Evil weevils
 

your sure it was bacon and not something more crunchy in the flour ;)

Re: Evil weevils
 

How long do they take to grow up? I could always keep that container of granary flour for a few months and watch them grow. :erm: :D

Re: Evil weevils
 

then you could start selling Bug Macs

http://www.szgdocent.org/ff/f-arth3c.htm

Re: Evil weevils
 

The life cycle requires 7 to 12 weeks, with adults living for 3 years or more. Ideally this type of beetle prefers temperatures of ca. 30°C and will not develop or breed at temperatures lower than 18°C.

Re: Evil weevils
 

I think that this thread serves as a warning to you all, if you go round Chris's then dont eat any of his homemade bread or cakes :D :D

Re: Evil weevils
 

ah but surely the cooking process would kill them , and if it had poppy seeds on the top you would never notice them extra crunchy bits :erm: :rofl: :rofl:

Re: Evil weevils
 

Confession time - the other week I carried on loading up the breadmaker after spotting one of the little blighters in the flour, reasoning that if I'd not seen it, I'd have gone ahead and never known the difference.

I only told Mrs T about it yesterday, before I started this thread. She took it surprisingly well. :erm: :D

Re: Evil weevils
 

I wonder what she has got planned as a revenge? :erm:

I'd be very,very cautious if I were you. :disturbd:

Re: Evil weevils
 

Well, we cleaned out the cupboard last night. Little sods were everywhere. :erm: I'm sure there are still a few hiding in the joints between the cupboard panels, so I'll be keeping an eagle eye out for any more of them wandering about.

I also discovered that our 'airtight containers' are nothing of the sort. Just cheapo imitation things from some tatty cookshop in Hemel Hempstead. Looks like we need a tupperware party. There's no way I'm having this again - we've been having to buy our bread from the shop until we could get everything clean and re-stock with flour. :(

Re: Evil weevils
 

:sick:

Re: Evil weevils
 

We keep ours in tupperware and if you leave to flour for 6 months you still get those things in it. Seems to suggest that the larvae are in the flour.

Re: Evil weevils
 

Have a look at a pet supplies shop for a bottle of Duramitex - it's an organophosphate pesticide. Mix it with water (ratio will be on the bottle) and clean the cupboard with it - should kill anything alive. Let the cupboard air for a day.

Re: Evil weevils
 

Yeah, I always thought they came from source...

Re: Evil weevils
 

Man, you know how to appeal to my sadistic side :naughty: Is that stuff officially safe to use in these situations?

Re: Evil weevils
 

Sorry but, what on earth are weevils? :(

Re: Evil weevils
 

Longmans Web Dictionary defines them as:

'a small insect that spoils grain, flour etc by eating it'

Nice, eh :disturbd:

Re: Evil weevils
 

Thanks, I'll try to remember that :erm:

Re: Evil weevils
 

Thoroughly OT, but m8, of the entire contents of the internet, could you not find something slightly more original for your avatar? You is confusing me :spin: scastle has been using one or other of those pelican crossing animations for months now.

Re: Evil weevils
 

Yes. Bird keepers use it (diluted) to clean cages and nest pots. It kills mite and other parasites, which can kill chicks (due to blood loss) and cause feather loss in adult birds.

The usual safety precautions apply - avoid skin/eye contact, don't breathe the mist if you spray the solution, and keep out of reach of children. The active compound is malathion, which is exactly the same stuff in Dermac - a lotion used to treat lice (head/body/pubic) infestations in humans.

If you use it on surfaces where food is prepared, I would leave it a day then clean again with something like a mild bleach solution, or just soapy water.

Re: Evil weevils
 

Some scary pics on this site :)

http://www.kendall-bioresearch.co.uk/domest.htm

Re: Evil weevils
 

I asked him if I could use his old one, he couldn't find it so he got a new one, and let me have his other one :p:

If you want me to change it I'll put it back to the "idiot" digger though :disturbd:

Re: Evil weevils
 

don't worry about it unless other people moan at you as well, prolly just me being a dunce :D

Re: Evil weevils
 

Earlier on I had a bit of a fright when I found one of these giving me the evil eye from the top of my teabag jar:

http://ohioline.osu.edu/hyg-fact/2000/2088.html (on the left)

I immediately thought of Chris T and his flour :D

Trouble is, I have nothing in the house that it would eat. So where's it come from :erm:

Re: Evil weevils
 

Maybe it only wanted a cup of tea?

Re: Evil weevils
 

Or just nipped round to borrow a cup of sugar?

We don't have weevil problems any more, although going 400 miles to move house was possibly an extreme solution. :D

Re: Evil weevils
 

Apparently, they can walk great distances...

Re: Evil weevils
 

Wasn't there an old Disney film about a family that move, don't take the pets and the pets travel 400 miles across country to be with them..

Maybe your weevils are planning to re-enact that? :D

Re: Evil weevils
 

Sounds like they have gone to greencreeper' house instead. ;)

Re: Evil weevils
 

Don't even joke about it :no:

I slung it out on the doorstep, which gave me cause to reflect on my life. Instead of throwing out cute 18 yr olds on a morning, I'm flinging out assorted wildlife :erm:

Re: Evil weevils
 

Bugger me :D

Re: Evil weevils
 

Right ... :erm:

Re: Evil weevils
 

Probably not the best thing to say on a public forum... Unless it is actually an invite..

Re: Evil weevils
 

Perhaps he meant to respond to GC's post? :shrug:

Re: Evil weevils
 

I'm glad I dont have any. I keep my flour in a cupbaord and inside a plastic box. Good luck in exterminating them.

PS: How did a guest manage to post. I thought you needed to sign up to post here.

Re: Evil weevils
 

Colin was a member until recently so, as I understand it, when he's asked for himself to be removed, the system resets his posts as a Guest.

Re: Evil weevils
 

http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0107131/
Homeward Bound: The Incredible Journey
http://ia.imdb.com/media/imdb/01/I/71/00/51m.jpg
includes Michael J Fox as one of the key characters.

Re: Evil weevils
 

That was the remake though....

The original one was just 'narrated'

Re: Evil weevils
 

It wouldn't be the first time ;)

Re: Evil weevils
 

You still have them, they just havent hatched yet

Re: Evil weevils
 

BUMP :D

We've been seeing a couple of moth-like creatures flying around the house/kitchen lately. They're silverish, and about 1 cm in length. I just noticed there were two in the kitchen cabinet where we keep the bread flour (as well as lots of spices), so I'm thinking this may be the source of the critters. A bit of googling suggests the flour moth, though the ones we have seem more silverish/whitish than the pics I see on the web?

Any thoughts on identification/course of action?

Re: Evil weevils
 

Flipping Nora. This thread wins the CF all-time major bumpage award. :bump: :D

Re: Evil weevils
 

I blame the OP... Unsavoury sort of character he is... Lesser of two weevils and all that!!!

Re: Evil weevils
 

Nuke the site from orbit. It's the only way to be sure

Re: Evil weevils
 

IIRC the inspiration for the original thread title was a robot of the same name that appeared in Robot Wars. :D

https://www.cableforum.co.uk/images/...2012/02/18.gif

Re: Evil weevils
 

It does mean the search function has been proved to work :)

Re: Evil weevils
 

No, the 'pest' in question is flying around the house.

We've cleared out and cleaned the cabinet this morning. We'll see how it goes.

---------- Post added at 12:05 ---------- Previous post was at 12:01 ----------

Ten hits for weevils :)

I remembered we had this thread, but I myself was surprised how old it was. I think the title helped in making it memorable.

Re: Evil weevils
 

These might come in handy

Re: Evil weevils
 

In a forum I know you get an instant ban for bumping a thread over 3 years old. for 7 years I'd say we beat them with a rubber thing and then ban em :)

Re: Evil weevils
 

Or we do what I did to the weevils in the OP - sit them in their air-tight container outside the back door and wait to see how long it takes them to die. ;)

Re: Evil weevils
 

Why worry, they are just extra protein?;)

Re: Evil weevils
 

I have no problem eating the things. I just don't like them flying around the house.

Re: Evil weevils
 

Then the secret is to eat them before they learn to fly..;)

Re: Evil weevils
 

We probably made some of the larvae into a new loaf just now. :)

Re: Evil weevils
 

How long did it take?

Re: Evil weevils
 

It does make for interesting flossing :)

Re: Evil weevils
 

They didn't mind the outdoors at all, plus they had a lifetime supply of food in the container with them.

We moved house three months after I started this thread, so the container got emptied and thoroughly cleaned so we could pack it away. They were all alive and kicking as they went into the wheelie bin.

Re: Evil weevils
 

ah ok. You see I clearly have a terrible mind -I assumed you had meant you'd taken all their food away, and just put them in an air tight container to see how long it would take them to die in some form of experiment....

Re: Evil weevils
 

Update: the little buggers were indeed meal moths:

http://www.lifecyclepest.com/images/meal_moth.jpg

Things quieted down a little after we cleared out the cupboard, but the buggers didn't go away. I then found an old bag of plain self-raising flour in the back of the (not cleared) top shelf of said cupboard, with one of the buggers in it. A couple of days later, I was going to roast some pine nuts for a salad, and found the pine nuts moved... Larvae :sick:

So I threw out the pine nuts, and opened a new bag (which I stuck in a sealed container afterwards), yet the critters still remained, despite me swatting about five of them every evening. Yesterday, I found out the source of the infection had moved to a different cupboard. Larvae in a bag of pasta we ate from just this week :) and in a bag of bird food lying in there. So I threw those out, and today, for the first time in 3 weeks I haven't seen a moth yet...

Surprisingly, they never seemed very interested in the freshly opened bags of flour that are still in the cupboard they first originated from, but instead opted for an old bag of self raising flour, pine nuts, pasta and bird food instead.

I'm sure they're hiding, hatching a plan to attack a food source I hadn't thought of... :)

Re: Evil weevils
 

Yes I threw away the opened bag of cornflour this week after mixing some of it with water and finding little dark specks floating on top.

Re: Evil weevils
 

Its part of a bigger food stuff invasion :D

Re: Evil weevils
 

No it's because it's an open package.The best way to avoid weevils is to place opened bags in an airtight container.Also it's a good idea to follow recipes when they say to sift flour..;)

Re: Evil weevils
 

It's not weevils, it's meal moths. And they went for old flour/pine nuts/pasta/bird food despite there being freshly opened bags of flour in the cabinet that was affected first. Generally speaking they seem attracted to old food stuffs. I think there may be something in Heero's suggestion, though I'm struggling with the concept of dried pasta absorbing much moisture.