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!