Evil weevils

[Mr_love_monkey]

Originally Posted by Chris

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.

How long did it take?

[danielf]

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

If it's a seeded one then you won't know the diffrence when you get a crunchy bit.

It does make for interesting flossing

Originally Posted by Mr_love_monkey

How long did it take?

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.

[Mr_love_monkey]

Originally Posted by Chris

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.

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....

[danielf]

Update: the little buggers were indeed meal moths:



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

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...

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.

[Sirius]

Originally Posted by danielf

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

Its part of a bigger food stuff invasion

Originally Posted by heero_yuy

It's probably because the fresh flour etc is too dry for them whereas opened product will have absorbed some moisture from the air.

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..

[danielf]

Originally Posted by Maggy J

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..

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.