Food moths are perhaps the most common food pest. What needs to be done to quickly rid kitchen cabinets and sideboards along with their contents? How to permanently protect your home from the appearance of this insect?
While the moth feels like a full-fledged mistress of the kitchen, something urgently needs to be done. Otherwise, she will soon fly off to explore the horizons of your living room, bedroom and other areas of the apartment. It is unlikely that a food moth will encroach on fur items in a closet, furniture or fabrics (for this it has distant “relatives” - fur moths, furniture moths and clothes moths), but to see it sitting on the ceiling and walls of different rooms is, at least, unpleasant . As a maximum, after an inspection of the kitchen, you will still have to frantically scour the auxiliary rooms, which are the pantry and the balcony, in search of cereals, dried fruits and dried mushrooms that were accidentally forgotten there. You probably already understand how to cultivate moths at home. It's time to get rid of her.
What does food moth look like (photo)
Food moth.
Type and lifespan
Name: Food moth Lat.:
Sitotroga cerealellaClass: Insects - Insecta Order: Lepidoptera - Lepidoptera Family: Lepidoptera - Gelechiidae
| Habitats: | kitchen cabinets |
| Dangerous for: | groceries, fruit |
| Means of destruction: | chemicals, folk remedies |
Food moth caterpillar.
Many people know what food moth looks like. Most often, so-called flour moths appear in the kitchen. It looks like a small butterfly, reaches up to 10 mm in length, its color is discreet, its wings have a silvery coating, and the caterpillar is pink or light yellow.
Ideal conditions for development are +20-25 degrees and humidity 50%. All stages of development from egg laying to the appearance of the moth take about 1.5 months.
What does it eat and what is it afraid of?
Traces of moth activity.
The moth feeds in the kitchen on flour, cereals, bran, pasta, dried fruits, nuts, and dried mushrooms. You can notice it by the grains stuck together, somewhat similar to a cobweb.
Plastic bags are not a hindrance for moth larvae; they easily gnaw holes in them and easily migrate from one bag to another if they lack food.
Butterflies cannot tolerate specific odors, for example, fresh orange peels, garlic cloves, bay leaves, lavender, mint, tansy. But these methods are only applicable against butterflies; aromas do not affect the larvae and eggs.
To destroy food pest larvae, there are household chemicals.
Folk remedies against moths in the kitchen
If you cannot control parasites using chemicals, try these methods:
- Place orange and lemon peels on the cabinets. Moths do not tolerate the smell of citrus fruits. The aroma of lavender also helps a lot.
- Thoroughly clean surfaces, cabinets, crevices and other hard-to-reach places with a vacuum cleaner, and wash with soapy water. Then wipe everything with vinegar.
- Place a bay leaf along the perimeters of the cabinets and in each jar of bulk product. Its smell repels parasites.
- Place fabric pads soaked in essential oils of clove, basil, geranium, rosemary, wild rosemary, fir or tansy on the cabinets.
Lifespan
Life cycle of a moth.
After mating, kitchen moths look for a moist, warm place where they will lay eggs. She needs 5-7 hours for fertilization and laying, after which she dies.
It takes 5-7 days from the maturation of the eggs to the appearance of the larvae. At one time, the female lays 50-100 eggs; they are very small, and it is almost impossible to notice their presence on food.
After emergence, the larva begins to eat food and throw waste into it. Cocoon formation is the final stage when cobwebs or balls appear in products.
The life cycle from egg to mating adult lasts 6-8 weeks.
Life cycle
Food moths have a short life cycle. If temperature conditions and humidity are optimal, the cycle lasts from 6 to 8 weeks. Favorable temperatures for insects are around 25°C and air humidity around 50%. In such conditions, the pest develops very quickly, and removing it is extremely problematic.
Separately, it should be said about what food moths eat. Only larvae feed, they are voracious, and their diet includes a variety of human foods. But adult individuals do not eat, since they have neither mouthparts nor digestive organs. The life of an adult insect is short, no more than a week, and is intended only to perform the reproductive function. Mating takes place already on the next or second day after emergence from the cocoon.
When talking about how the pest reproduces, it must be taken into account that the female prefers to mate and lay eggs in the same place where the larvae already live. In rare cases, insects mate away from human habitation, and then the female returns to the larval feeding area to lay eggs. After mating, males either continue searching for females or die.
If we talk about how long a food moth lives, taking into account the larval phase, it turns out to be about a month and a half. Of this period, the development phase in the cocoon takes almost two weeks.
What harm does
Moth in the cereal.
Unlike ordinary butterflies, which breed in the summer, the food species in an apartment can breed all year round. This is one of the reasons why food moths are dangerous and why they need to be removed as quickly as possible.
It usually starts in products that have expired or when sanitary rules are violated. She wanders around the kitchen cabinet and eats everything that comes in her way. The pest especially loves cereal products, pasta, flour, nuts, dried fruits, and candies. All products that end up in cabinets contaminated with moths and their larvae will be spoiled.
You may wonder if food moths eat clothes. The answer is clear: it is not dangerous for fur and wool products.
How to recognize a pest?
The moth, or as it is popularly called the “food moth,” is a pest that, while in the caterpillar phase, feeds on groceries, nuts and dried fruits. In fact, there are several species of this butterfly, and each of them has its own characteristics. But in general, any food moth will be quite inconspicuous, and the faded pattern on the wings helps it in this.
But the larvae of these pests, as they say, look the same. They look like caterpillars, the body of which is painted pale yellow or pale pink. While in this phase of development, the food moth leads a hidden lifestyle; it constantly lives in a bag of food and crawls out of it only during the pupation period. It is at this stage of their existence that thick caterpillars can be detected with the naked eye - they will crawl along kitchen surfaces, most often along the walls of cabinets in which they parasitized. Adult butterflies no longer spoil food, but only mate and thereby increase the size of the colony.
On a note! It is for this reason that it is useless to fight food moths by destroying only winged individuals! After all, at the same time, somewhere in the kitchen cabinet, caterpillars are already living and parasitizing, which spoil your food supplies!
Where does the food moth live and what does it eat?
Absolutely all groceries are attractive to food moths and they can be found in such food products as:
- bread and any bakery products, including breadcrumbs and regular crackers;
- absolutely any cereals and grains;
- flour and flour products, such as pasta;
- sugar;
- cocoa;
- cookie;
- nuts and dried fruits;
- mild spices, etc.
At the first stage of infection, it is quite difficult to identify parasites, since the caterpillars will be in the products. Their presence in cereals and flour will be indicated by small dark lumps and scraps of cobwebs - this is part of the cocoon with which the larvae weave themselves during the process of parasitism. If a pest has taken a fancy to a bag of nuts, then there will be neat small holes on them, and when the shell is broken, the same caterpillar will be inside.
Reasons for appearance
Cereals infested with moths.
At home, moths can appear in products brought from the supermarket, contaminated with eggs, but invisible to the eye. Food moth larvae appear most often Therefore, to avoid this problem, buy products from trusted stores and carefully check the tightness and appearance of the packaging.
Moths can travel from neighbors if they have such a problem. Through a window or vent, she may travel in search of food.
Ways to fight
If you do not fight the insect, it multiplies quickly and affects a large amount of food. Stopping the process will be much more difficult than at an early stage. Therefore, it is important to carry out some measures to detect and eliminate parasites. So, here's how to deal with food moths.
We are conducting an audit
Products in the kitchen cabinet need to be carefully examined; the presence of lumps or cobwebs indicates pest infestation. For reliability, it is better to process all cereals before storage: place in the freezer for 2-3 hours or in the microwave at maximum power for 30 seconds.
Proper storage of cereals is the key to their purity.
Processing and cleaning of kitchen furniture
How to get rid of food moths in the kitchen, these methods will help.
- The first step is to go through all the corners and crevices of the cabinets and throughout the kitchen with a vacuum cleaner.
- Wash everything with soapy water and wipe the shelves with vinegar.
- Wash curtains, tablecloths, towels.
- After cleaning, ventilate the room.
Pheromone traps for adults
Pheromone traps.
Mostly male moths migrate. Traps containing pheromones attract females. When they sit on the sticky parts of the traps, they die.
Velcro is also made using this principle to kill adult specimens. This kind of bait should be used with caution so as not to lure even more male moths to the scent of the female.
Household chemicals
There is no shortage of household chemicals, so you can choose a product that is ideal for your specific situation.
Aerosols and sprays must be applied carefully so that they do not come into contact with food.
Gels and pencils will help in the fight against moths. Inexpensive but effective are crayons .
Fumigators, such as raptor, act on adults and are not dangerous to the larvae.
Folk remedies
Lavender and mint repel moths.
Folk remedies will help you get rid of food moths in your closet or pantry. This is more of a preventive measure, but the smell of some plants repels moths. If, after cleaning, you lay out fresh orange peels, unpeeled garlic cloves, bay leaves, lavender, wormwood, mint, adult butterflies will leave their home.
Herbs can be replaced with cotton pads soaked in essential oils. You can use sachets with mixtures of herbs against moths, which need to be placed in the kitchen in food storage areas.
The article at the link suggests 20 effective ways to get rid of moths.
How to get rid of eggs and larvae
If you want to get rid of moths forever, be prepared for a rather long and painstaking process. There are many methods.
You can choose special insecticides, or you can choose folk remedies - the main thing is to be consistent and not give up halfway.
Warning: We recommend that you do not use moth traps. Yes, they are quite effective and attract all adult parasites. However, there are many complaints on the Internet that, along with “house” moths, such a device also attracts “guests” from neighbors and from the street. Think about whether you need such a spontaneous increase in the moth population in your apartment.
Various chemical poisons work well: Raptor, Armor, Combat. They really do have their drawbacks. If they come into contact with food, they can seriously harm human health. Therefore, you need to handle furniture with extreme caution, and it is better not to touch storage containers at all.
It is not surprising that many people prefer folk remedies to fight moths.
However, any means of combating butterflies and larvae will be ineffective if you do not first eliminate the egg laying sites.
On the Internet you can find a recommendation to throw out absolutely all food from the kitchen - this will help make moths feel like the French near Moscow in 1812. But such measures are too radical - they should be taken only if the degree of infection is very high.
In other cases, it is enough to simply sort through the bulk products, removing eggs and larvae from them, and then freeze or heat in the microwave.
After this, you need to thoroughly wash the containers, treat them with vinegar and dry them well. This measure will not only remove traces of moth activity, but will also help repel it with a pungent odor.
Please note that larvae can be found almost everywhere. Be sure to go over the cabinets with a vacuum cleaner (not forgetting the outer parts), then treat them as well. The vacuum cleaner will suck up eggs that you haven't noticed.
Attention: Very often moths lay larvae not only in food, but also under the ceiling, where warm air rises during cooking. Therefore, we recommend going over the ceiling joints with special products or just apple cider vinegar. The same applies to chandeliers: if they have a lot of twisted parts that are not adjacent directly to the lamps, it is better to process them too.
Preventive measures
When replenishing your food supply, it is important to remember some preventive measures:
- Be careful when purchasing groceries at low prices, checking the expiration date and condition of the packaging.
- Before storing, treat with cold or high temperature.
- Store all products in airtight containers.
- Use moth repellents.
- Do not stock up on large amounts of food.
- Monitor the condition of kitchen cabinets, wash and ventilate them regularly.
- Conduct an inspection of existing inventory.
Following preventative practices will help preserve food.
