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How to Get Rid of Pantry Moths

May 21, 2020 Leave a Comment

Is your kitchen infested with tiny little brown pantry moths? Ever tried to kill them?  Kill one and two take its place. Kill two more, and then there are three.  It is an endless cycle and, sadly, could start to feel like the moths are winning! So, what are these little creatures and why are they living in your kitchen?
How To Get Rid of Pantry Moths

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There is a way to ☑️ get rid of pantry moths !

PANTRY MOTHS – What are they?

Pantry moths got that name for the obvious reason that they live in pantries and kitchen cupboards. I can think of a few more choice names for them…including “The Pests from the Pit of You-Know-Where.” Weren’t they one of the plagues of Egypt? They had to be!
Having had way too much familiarity with them, I decided to learn more about them. Pantry moths most often feed off of grains and cereals, though I’ve found them in the most peculiar places including tea bags. (Maybe they were running out of ideas?) Another name for these moths, by the way,  is “Indian Meal Moths”.
One of the reasons that they are so hard to get rid of permanently is their life cycle. The first time that you notice them is likely to be when they are flying around your kitchen. Unfortunately, they’d already set up shop a while ago, planning on a long stay.
Pantry moths lay eggs…lots of them. Each moth may lay up to 300 eggs at a given time. That will soon be 300 moths, if they have their way! Yikes! From a few days to two weeks later, larvae emerge from those eggs. Larvae have no social graces and will show up where and when you least expect it. Can I tell you that one fell from the ceiling onto my kitchen table? Horrifying!
Keep food safe in these air tight food storage containers with labels AD
Air tight food storage containers – set of 7!  #AD

How To Keep Pantry Moths Out Of Your Home

Cleanliness is a great start. We can all be in a hurry and, sometimes, leave a counter with crumbs– but that isn’t the best practice. Clean up counters and table-tops after meals and snacks. Sweep the kitchen floor, as well. Don’t give them things to feed on.

The cupboards tend to be the breeding ground, though. Cleaning cupboards is a long, tedious job and we all lead busy lives. That may explain why more people are complaining about moth infestation than ever. We just don’t have the time. But, once you’ve got moths, your time is going to be taken up with trying to get rid of them and, trust me, you’ll hate every minute of it.
As you are swatting at them, you’ll see the wisdom in spring and fall cleaning! Yes, every spring and every fall our moms [and grandmas] would empty the cupboards and this is what they would do:
  • They threw out expired food.
  • Checked the current food for freshness. Stale? It went in the trash, too.
  • Washed the cupboards: shelves, sides, ceilings. Yes. ALL of it.
  • Put down shelf paper.   What’s that? Shelf paper is literally paper that lays on the shelf and looks pretty. But it’s functional too. It can be thrown away with the next cleaning or if there is a spill.
  • Replaced the old with new food, in air-tight containers.

Another tip: your kitchen cupboards, themselves, may be making it all-too-easy for the moths to stay. If the cupboards are not flush to the wall, or do not go up to the ceiling, then there are a lot of hiding places that you’ll never get at no matter how well you clean.


Pantry Moths – How To Get Rid Of Them

And, this is what you’ve been waiting for: how we wipe-them-out forever!

First: get busy and do the “spring or fall cleaning” routine. Forget waiting for the right time of year. Do it now. Empty the cupboards and toss all the infested food out. Play it safe. Don’t try to hang onto anything questionable. You’ll get more food.

Unless it’s canned soup or tuna, most things will probably have to go. Cereal, mashed potatoes, pancake mix, rice, pasta, packaged mixes like cake mix, tea bags…say “goodbye” to it.

Now, scrub! Use lots of soapy hot water to clean those cupboards. Look out…you’ll run into live moths and larvae. This is combat! Be brave. If you find little webs in corners, know that that is where eggs are. Clean it out thoroughly.
Dry: using paper towel, dry the cupboards out.
KILL: now…here’s the deal. You’ve set up a clean environment where you should be able to trust your food to be safe, but it’s not. You cannot possibly seek and destroy ALL of the eggs, larvae and adult moths by cleaning.
You have to draw them in and stomp them out. Trust me on this. I’ve tried Windexing the little buggers out of the sky. (Windex is NOT bug spray!) I’ve tried more powerful, toxic bug sprays (never a good idea in a kitchen or around people or pets) and it was only a temporary fix. The only thing that I have found to work, and work FABULOUSLY, is a moth trap.
How to get rid of pantry moths forever! #tips #cleaning #pests #home Click To Tweet

Pantry Moth Traps

Desperate, having been under siege for well over a month, I stopped trying home remedies and began to search the internet. The chats and forums all were saying that moth traps were the only thing that really works.

pantry moths are hard to get rid of #moths #bugs #infestation

So, I found a highly recommended brand–Catchmaster–and called the local home improvement store. They did not have any in stock. Though I didn’t really want to have to wait any longer, I knew that Amazon shipped quickly. I placed my order for two packs and kept on squirting the varmints out of the air with glass cleaner until my order arrived. LOL

The traps are easy to assemble and non-toxic. They are small little tents. I was skeptical that just one trap could do much but I was utterly amazed to watch it work. Literally 30 seconds after I had the trap assembled, the first moth flew into it and got stuck. Then two more arrived. Whoosh. They were gone, caught in its proverbial jaws.

The trap is like “fly paper” inside (very strong adhesive so don’t touch it with your fingers) with a little red square of something that attracts them. Within a few hours, 22 moths had met their demise!
After a couple of days, I replaced it with a new one but only a couple more got trapped. Why? They were all gone! I mean it. I haven’t seen any moths…even larvae…in many weeks. I have a spare set of traps handy for the first sighting, though. My hope is, we’re done with this!    And, I now love spring and fall cleaning–a lot! 🙂
Troubled by moths in your kitchen? #pantrymoths #bugs #ad
Trouble with pantry moths? Get rid of them forever! #pests #tips #moths Click To Tweet
 

Enjoy!

 

Filed Under: cleaning, Lifestyle, tips Tagged With: cleaning tips, kitchen

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