How to remove food moths in the kitchen

Even the cleanest apartments are not immune to such a misfortune as food moths. Having chosen some kind of cuisine, this harmful insect spoils food and can pose a threat to human health. It is not difficult to remove food moths if you know the features of the action on pests of improvised means that can be found in every home, and specialized drugs.

Where does food moth come from in the house?

Contrary to popular belief, food moths appear in an apartment not due to a violation of the shelf life of food. These cereal pests get into cereals, dried fruits, flour and cereal products even before the food reaches store shelves. With careless packing and insufficiently careful processing of products, adult insects climb inside and lay eggs there. Often, the moth enters the house through windows or ventilation, after which it finds the most favorable environment for reproduction, easily gnawing through cardboard and paper packaging.

It is often possible to visually determine if a food is infected with food moths. As a rule, such products are covered with a thin cobweb, they contain small, the size of a grain of rice, yellowish larvae. They just represent the main danger to human health. Eating cereals and other bulk products, the larvae leave their excrement and shell fragments in the food during molting, which, if used accidentally, can cause poisoning of the body. Mature individuals of the food moth do not eat anything and consume only water, but they lay a large number of eggs, from which all new caterpillars hatch.

It is not easy to completely remove these pests from the apartment, but it is possible if you apply an integrated approach aimed at simultaneously destroying the larvae and adult insects.

Having found foods affected by food moths in your kitchen, you should follow these recommendations:

1. All bulk products must be heat treated by calcining them on a stove or in an oven at a temperature of 60 - 65 ° C. Alternatively, you can place the affected food in the freezer for 2 to 3 days. In this case, the temperature indicators should not exceed the mark of -10 ° C.
2. Groceries containing cobwebs should be thrown away or burned immediately.
3. All kitchen surfaces should be vacuumed taking into account dark corners, ceiling joints and chandeliers.
4. It is advisable to thoroughly wash containers for storing food with a solution of laundry soap and treat with vinegar, and then dry.

Such measures will help to remove most of the larvae in the house. The next step is to reduce the number of adults. This is done by chemical treatment of the room or using various folk remedies.

How to remove moths in the kitchen with folk remedies

Traditional methods against food moths attract with their availability and the fact that they are absolutely safe for the human body. Most of them have characteristic strong odors that these insects cannot tolerate. The following remedies work best on food moth:

• Bay leaf;
• garlic;
• burnt honey;
• odorous herbs;
• tobacco;
• citrus fruits.

A good effect can be achieved by treating the kitchen with ammonia, vinegar or camphor oil.

How to remove food moths in an apartment with bay leaves

In the fight against food moths, the familiar bay leaf has proven itself very well to everyone. This seasoning inhibits the reproduction of an annoying insect due to its persistent specific aroma, while it does not matter if it is fresh or dried. Therefore, laurel panicles hanging from the ceiling or crushed leaf plates of a plant located on the horizontal surfaces of an infected room will help solve the problem with winged pests.

How to remove food moth with natural camphor

Food moths can also be removed by such proven products as natural camphor and camphor essential oil. Like their wardrobe relatives, adults of cereal pests do not tolerate the aroma of camphor and, upon smelling it, immediately leave their homes. Such a tool will produce the greatest effect if you lubricate the walls of kitchen cabinets, cupboard doors and other furniture sets where groceries are stored.

How to remove moths from the kitchen with aromatic herbs

Collections of aromatic herbs are very effective in getting rid of food moths, which include:

• lavender;
• cloves;
• geranium;
• wild rosemary;
• tansy;
• fir;
• rosemary;
• basil.

The dried parts of these plants, decomposed in places where moths accumulate, scare off voracious insects and completely get rid of mature individuals in 5 - 7 days. Essential oils based on them have the same benefit. These essences can be added to an aroma lamp, or you can soak a piece of clean cloth in them and place it near the infection site. However, it is worth remembering that lavender tends to impregnate food with its smell, so it is not recommended to store it next to unpackaged food. If the food supplies are in closed glass and tin containers, then the pungent smell will not affect their quality and taste.

How to remove kitchen moths with vinegar

You can remove the cereal moth with vinegar. It is enough to apply it to the walls and doors of food cabinets to scare away adults from the food. It will also not be superfluous to treat containers and containers for storing bulk products with a 9% solution of vinegar in order to prevent larvae from multiplying in it.

How to remove food moth in an apartment with citrus zest

Lemon or orange peel is an effective remedy to help remove food moths. Since the essential oils contained in it repel cereal pests, the following simple remedy can help against adult specimens:

1. The citruses are peeled and dried in a dark, well-ventilated place. This is necessary so that mold does not start to grow on the zest.
2. Then citrus peels are laid out on kitchen surfaces, focusing on the location of the moth nests.

After 10 - 14 days, insects will cease to cause concern, provided that, in parallel with the use of this tool, bulk products from eggs and larvae of cereal parasites were treated.

How to remove cereal moth with ammonia

The food moth will not resist against ammonia either.They, as is the case with camphor oil and vinegar, need to lubricate the planes in places where adult insects most often gather, namely on shelves with edibles, in kitchen cabinets and dark corners under the ceiling. However, it is worth remembering that ammonia can cause an allergic reaction if it comes into contact with the skin, so you should wear protective gloves before handling it. In addition, it will not be superfluous to make sure that the people living nearby do not have an intolerance to this substance.

How to remove food moth from an apartment with garlic

Garlic is another food that will ward off food pests from any home. To do this, place garlic cloves cut in half throughout the kitchen. You can arrange 1 - 2 cloves in packages with bulk products and cereals to prevent the emergence of new larvae. Do not be afraid that the sharp aroma of garlic will spoil the food - the smell of the vegetable is not absorbed by the food and does not change its taste.

How to remove food moth and its larvae with burnt honey

Burnt honey has proven useful in getting rid of gluttonous insects. To implement it, they are guided by the following actions:

1. Heat the pan over medium heat for 2 to 3 minutes.
2. Poured into a bowl 3 - 4 tbsp. l. natural honey.
3. Heat the honey over low heat until it turns brown.
4. The pan is then removed from the stove and carried around the apartment several times, with particular attention to the kitchen and other places where food is stored.

The sugary smell of warmed honey will help remove food parasites from the apartment, but this only applies to adults. Although the larvae react negatively to olfactory stimuli, they will not disappear after such treatment, and therefore the fight against them involves a different approach, for example, thermal or light exposure.

How to remove moths from cereals using specialized tools

In addition to folk methods, you can effectively remove food moths using products specifically designed to combat these insects. So, to get rid of pests, special pheromone traps are used. Outwardly, they look like elongated rounded pyramids with an adhesive surface, with large slits on both sides. There is a pheromone bait on the bottom of this design. Males, sensing a characteristic smell, fly into the trap and stick to it.

This remedy is quite effective, but it has several negative aspects. Firstly, it has no effect on female food moths, and they will continue to besiege the kitchen until their lifespan comes to an end. During this time, fertilized females will be able to lay eggs and breed a new generation of insects that will continue to spoil food. Secondly, the smell of pheromones is carried at a sufficiently large distance and can attract male cereal insects from nearby territories. To avoid this, it is necessary to carefully monitor that all windows and doors in the room with the placed trap are closed. It is also better to cover ventilation during processing.

In order to remove food moths, duct tape for flies will also work. Although such tapes do not lure mature insects, the sticky composition on their surface reliably adheres the moth and prevents it from getting out, therefore, if you hang these products in the kitchen, you can significantly reduce the population of cereal pests.

Chemical repellents and insecticides, unlike the aforementioned methods, are effective not only against adult food moths, but also against their larvae. The most popular names are:

• Raptor;
• Combat;
• Armol.

These products are available in the form of aerosols that must be sprayed onto the kitchen surfaces that the mole comes into contact with. They have a long duration of action and destroy insects at all stages of growth.However, these repellents are quite aggressive and can harm human health. Before using such chemicals, you must read the instructions.

Prevention of food moths

Since it can be quite problematic to remove cereal insects from an already affected room, it is worth making every effort to prevent the appearance of moths in the apartment. A few simple tips will help you forget about such a problem as food moths:

1. You should buy bulk products in trusted stores from reliable manufacturers. Well-known companies pay great attention to the high-quality processing of their products, and therefore the risk that food moths will be in such food will be minimal.
2. After purchase, cereals and cereals sold under the promotion should be put in the freezer for several days or heated in the oven.
3. All purchased products should be inspected after purchase for lumps or other strange inclusions that may indicate the presence of moths.
4. Pasta and other groceries must be stored in hermetically sealed plastic, tin or glass containers, where insects that accidentally fly outside cannot reach.
5. Herbal bags hidden on the shelves will prevent insects and fill the kitchen with a pleasant aroma.

Conclusion

Although removing food moths is not always easy, with the right approach, this can be done in 3 to 5 weeks. And if you subsequently take preventive measures, this insect will have no chance to spoil the food in the future.