Indian Meal Moths - Beware

Kind of a funny story, but not if you lived it.

While preparing to get married about two years ago, my wife (who was my girlfriend for almost 7 years) and I renovated an apartment in our apartment building to live in. It was right across the hall from the apartment I lived in as a bachelor so when we finally got in there, I decided to keep my bachelor pad as my office, and also for some storage. I moved most of my cooking stuff over to the new apartment except for things I had two of, or equipment that I do not use all that often.

Out in the yard we have a tent like structure that goes over a patio to keep it cool so when we eat outdoors we can stay out of the sun, and also drop the screens to keep out insects.

In the autumn of 07, I took it down and packed it away in the closet. About a month or so later I kept noticing the occasional moth fly by. This is not all that uncommon as my office has seven 10 foot windows that were built over 150 years ago and you will get the occasional moth finding his/her way in. Then I began to notice more moths, then more, then more.

So I started checking around, looked in the closets thinking perhaps they are the kind of moths that eat clothing and perhaps somehow I brought them in with the tent. Could not find any moths in the closets and searched and searched but I could not find any concentration of them. So I went on a rampage and killed them whenever I saw them. Now I have always had an affection for moths. I don't know why, but I always considered them the most harmless of the insects. Usually if one was in the house and annoying me, I would catch it with my hand, open the door, and let it out. Anyway, I must have whacked about a hundred of these things.

All was good for about 2-3 weeks and they started coming back. For the life of me, I could not figure out how or where. I am really against pesticides so bombing the house was not an option. Since they were not really landing on me and biting me like other annoying insects, I just dealt with them figuring sooner or later they would just die out.

Finally I had enough and went online to find out exactly what kind of moth this was and how to get rid of it. Turned out they are Indian Meal Moths. My first thought was "meal moth?". I don't have any food in the office so what the heck?

So I searched the cupboards that I used to use when I lived in the "office" again and lo and behold, way up top in one of my cabinets I had in a plastic grocery bag, a bag of wheat flour. The bag was dotted with these little buggers crawling all over it. I grabbed it, and tossed it into the dumpster.

Now in my other apartment (my residence), all of my flours are in airtight containers so I don't have the moth issue. I asked everyone in the building and nobody else is having a problem with them.

My assumption is that they either came in with the wheat flour (although the flour must have been there for a couple years), or that they came in with the tent. So, here I sit squashing moths as they fly by, typing my story as a warning to the rest of you. Keep your flours sealed up, don't leave them in that cheesy packaging they come in from the store (why oh why don't they package flour better?) and if you see one of these, don't wait, find their nest, get rid of them quick!

Well, they might have hatched in the flour. That what happens when you have flour a long time and mealy bugs show up. The eggs are there, they are just too tiny to see. Another thing with moths. I have rabbits and sometimes I buy a big bag to save me frome running back and forth. During certain times, having the food for months, a moth will fly out of the bag. They are always the same looking moths. I guess moths that are attracted to the grasses that they use in the pellets. I had never had a moth fly out of my old batch of flour though. Just mealy bugs. And it doesn't matter if you got flour in a tight container if the eggs are within. You will be able to keep other critters out though. Cute story!

The only reason why I am in doubt on the flour is that it was there for so long. Wouldn't they have hatched long before a year and a half?

months or years?

With my rabbit food, it is in the house in a warm environment. And I guess I can say moths will show up in about 6 months. I don't know about your flour. If it was stored in a colder place it could take longer for the moths to hatch.

As for the air tight containers, my reasoning is that not only would they never get in, they would never get out if they come with the flour, unless I opened, but then I would have instantly known what was going on.

I just don't understand why they cannot package flour better than they currently do.

Hey Jeff!
I've had and experience with Indian Meal Moths that came from bird seed. We found 100's of little white caterpillars on our closet ceiling the day after opening a bag of black oil sunflower seed we bought from local no-kill animal shelter (they sold donated food to pay for the services they provided). They stored it outside and those suckers know how to eat through cardboard and plastic.

We thought we got them all, but after a year of fighting them and throwing out lots of food including rice, flour, etc, I saw this moth trap in the Gardens Alive catalog. The traps did the trick. It's been at least 10 years since then, and I still keep these around as I occasionally see those little brown moths fly around. The last traps I got came from Lowes, who started stocking them last fall.

Matt

Well, since I cleared everything out of the old apt, the population is almost destroyed. I never really store any food in it. I saw one fly by yesterday but from what I read, after you remove all their food, they will probably stick around for 2-3 weeks afterwards as some are still hatching.

Thanks for the link though! If I get these things again, I will definitely pick up a few of these traps.