As a rule, people more often mistake a moth for an inconspicuous small moth, after the appearance of which they conduct an inspection of all fur and other similar products in their apartment.
However, at the moment, there are many parasites in nature that cause some harm to a person, his home or garden plot.
In order to successfully fight female clothes moths or other types of similar parasites, you need to know everything about moths - how long they live, what they eat, etc. The main types of such parasites and other useful nuances are described below in this article.
What does it look like and where does it lay eggs?
Appearance of the food moth
The food moth is a flying insect up to 1 cm long, externally resembling a moth with a heterogeneous grayish-brown color. The inconspicuous color of the body and wings helps the parasite remain unnoticed among food. The moth lives mainly in food pantries and in the kitchen, so people call it differently: food, cooking, flour, fruits, cereals.
The insect lays eggs directly in cereals or on bags with them.
Food moths in food
A female food moth produces from 50 to 400 eggs during her entire life cycle. They are so small that they cannot be distinguished with the naked eye. The eggs hatch into larvae - small caterpillars that do the most damage to food supplies. During their life, moth larvae weave a web, forming a cocoon from which a butterfly emerges.
What species threaten the garden?
In total there are more than 30 species of moths. Many species live in our apartments and populate wardrobes. But we will talk about creatures that pose a direct threat to plants in the garden.
| View | Description | Peculiarities |
| Potato. | The butterfly is gray-brown in color with a wingspan of up to 12-13 mm, the size of the insect at rest is only 7-8 mm. | The larvae eat tunnels in potato tubers and lead to the death of the fruit. |
| Onion. | Brown color with large white spots, elongated body with visible drooping. | Reproduction occurs in May, insects lay eggs on the back of the leaf, and the caterpillars actively destroy the leaf mass. |
| Cabbage. | Large in size, up to 12-16 mm long, with a wide stripe of white or yellow color running along the wings. | Green caterpillars eat cabbage heads, making long strokes in them and leading to the death of the fetus. |
| Tomato (mining). | A butterfly up to 5-7 mm long, with a wingspan of up to 10 mm, beige in color with brown spots. | The caterpillars attack tomato varieties, potatoes, peppers and eggplants. |
| Apple (ermine). | The butterfly is white with noticeable black dots on the wings. | It poses a danger to all types of garden trees, eating leaves and gnawing fruits. |
| Grape (circle). | Small in size with a wingspan of only 3.5-4 mm, brown in color with light-colored spots. | Caterpillars destroy grapevines. |
| Wax (bee moth). | The moth is large in size, up to 35-38 mm in length, gray-brown in color with dark spots. | The larvae can destroy all beekeeping products - royal jelly, bee bread, propolis, honey and even pollen. |
| Poplar. | A butterfly with narrow, velvety, whitish wings with dark spots on the front legs; the wings are framed with downy fringe. | The caterpillar poses a threat to all green spaces, both shrubs, trees and flowers. |
| Rowan (variegated). | The moth is 7.5-8 mm in size and grayish in color with visible dark stripes on the wings. | Causes damage to many garden cultivated trees, affecting foliage and fruits. |
| Currant (bud). | The butterfly is small in size and reaches a length of up to 12-16 mm and is yellowish-brown in color. | Eats plant buds, leading to their death. |
All varieties of moths cannot tolerate low temperatures and die when the temperature drops below +20⁰C.
Types of food moths
Food moths are different types of fire moths - small butterflies whose caterpillars eat human food. Most often found in the kitchen of a city apartment:
- flour moth;
- mill fire;
- cocoa moth;
- southern barn moth.
The clothes moth (house moth), which lives in closets and feeds on natural fabrics and materials (silk, wool, fur), differs from the food moth in its lighter color - yellowish with golden reflections.
Difference between food moth and clothes moth
Clothes moth larvae can also eat flour, grain or dried fruit. Therefore, it is necessary to combat both types of butterflies in a comprehensive manner, examining and treating all corners of the house.
How do moths reproduce?
This parasite, like many other butterflies, lays microscopic eggs (not larger than 0.5 mm), which grow to become a caterpillar. The female lays approximately 50-80 eggs , leaving them in a secluded place so that the offspring can develop quickly and safely without being attacked by people.
Standard masonry is located near pockets, woolen collars, old blankets that have been stored in closets for years.
You may not be able to detect house moth eggs right away : to do this, you need to carefully examine all the things, especially those that are put on the far shelf.
After hatching, the baby moths will feed on this particular fabric - try to eliminate the problem as quickly as possible and treat the clothing with special products. If we are talking about expensive fabric, have the items professionally dry cleaned .
Reasons for appearance
Many people wonder where food moths come from in a house where regular cleaning is carried out. He cannot accidentally get into the apartment from the street, since he cannot fly that well. The butterflies that flutter around the house are males. Female butterflies move much more slowly, mostly jumping from place to place. Therefore, even if a male has flown into a dwelling, without a female he will not be able to reproduce.
Food moths appear in the house along with contaminated grains, sugar or dried fruits brought from the store.
Inside the bags there are already eggs or moth caterpillars, which are then spread throughout the apartment. They get to us through cuts, tears, punctures in the packaging or when packaging the goods at the factory. Comfortable conditions for the reproduction of food moths are temperature + 22 ... 25 ° and air humidity above 60%.
Development cycle of poplar moth
Reproduction of the poplar moth can be represented in the form of successive stages:
- An adult female lays up to 32 eggs on last year's tree crown. Each of them is protected by secretions of the gonads.
- After 7-10 days, a larva forms.
- The larva penetrates the leaf blade, covering the resulting hole with a shell. It eats vegetation and stores nutrients.
- A light yellow caterpillar about 5 mm long appears. In the first two stages, she has no legs. Then it changes color to whitish, the back half turns orange. At the third and fourth stages of development, the larva develops thoracic and abdominal legs.
During the entire period of development, the caterpillar molts 4 times and undergoes 5 modifications. She eats exclusively fiber. At first, the chewed mine can only be found on the underside of the leaf. But very soon a through hole with a loose cobweb cocoon forms.
At the end of June, on days 7-9 of development, the caterpillar pupates. Its length reaches 4.5 cm. This stage precedes the appearance of the butterfly. It is distinguished by a pointed ventral region and a shiny brown body color. The mass emergence of moths lasts 1.5 months - from mid-July to September.
What does it eat and what is it afraid of?
The kitchen moth is almost omnivorous. He eats not only food, but also fresh fruits and even dried herbs or spices. Adult flying individuals do not feed at all: they do not have oral organs or a digestive system. The danger comes from food moth larvae, which require a lot of food to pupate. The following products are unsafe:
- Cereals - semolina, rice, millet, buckwheat.
- Pasta.
- Cereals - oatmeal, seeds, bran.
- Dried fruits - prunes, dried apricots, raisins, figs.
- Flour and baked goods: baked goods, cookies, crackers.
- Cocoa and delicate spices.
- Nuts - hazelnuts, almonds, cashews.
- Sugar.
Food moths do not tolerate the smell of citrus fruits, lavender, tansy, wormwood, rosemary, dill and cloves. Therefore, for preventive purposes, you can hang bunches of dried herbs in the kitchen or use essential oils: scent the air, clean cabinets, add to water when wet cleaning.
Phases of transformation of eggs into food moths
What harm does
The insect is not dangerous to humans. It does not bite and does not carry infections on its paws that threaten people. Kitchen moths do not eat clothes made from natural fabrics, so you don’t have to worry about the safety of your items.
Only food harms gray butterflies - a large number of food moth larvae feeding on food damages them irrevocably.
The materials become unsuitable for consumption or further processing. All you can do is get rid of spoiled grains or nuts as soon as possible to prevent contamination of other foods.
Signs of infection
Dimensions of food moths and larvae
It is not difficult to detect that there are moths in the house: grayish butterflies appear in the kitchen or pantries. Most often they can be seen in the evening - insects fly outside to bask in the warm radiation of turned on electrical appliances. White caterpillars can be seen on cabinet doors, walls and even the ceiling. Parasites lay eggs directly in food. They do this on purpose: the hatched moth larvae need food. Cobwebs in semolina or flour are also a sign of infection: the adult caterpillar is spinning threads for a cocoon in which it will turn into an adult.
Characteristics of all types
A moth is a lepidopteran insect whose activity begins at dusk. They are characterized by their small size and narrow wings when folded. The clothes folds its wings into a triangle, the moths into tubes, and the ermines into a pyramid (see photo).
Types of moths
The color depends on the type of moth and habitat. For most insects, camouflage is a vital necessity to protect themselves from predators. The white moth - the snow leaf roller - practically does not stand out against the background of the birch, and the fireweed moth is difficult to see on the green leaves. Below is a photo of a moth living in the wild.
Moth in the wild
Adults can be distinguished from butterflies by the absence of a proboscis. In the adult stage, moths do not feed on anything, and their energy reserves are replenished from substances that they accumulated as caterpillars. The oral apparatus of the larvae is equipped with powerful jaws that can gnaw through even hard bones, dense seed shells, turtle shells, and animal horns.
Methods of disposal
To remove food moths, you need to perform the following steps:
- carefully study all possible insect habitats;
- find a brood of eggs;
- get rid of larvae;
- treat infected surfaces with insecticides.
It is also necessary to destroy the imago: each female butterfly lays up to 400 eggs in different places, from which a new generation of parasites develops. At home, to combat insects, you can use folk methods or store-bought remedies: fragrant herbs, essential oils, traps, dishes, sprays, fumigators.
Destruction of larvae
To find caterpillar habitats, you need to go through all the shopping bags and look at homemade products: dried herbs, mushrooms, apples, etc. Most often, food moths lay eggs in semolina and dried fruits, so first of all you should take a closer look at these products... Throw away bags and packages with contaminated products. It is necessary to disinfect the moth habitat, and then use mechanical means to catch butterflies: traps, electrical tape, a fly swatter or rolled up newspaper.
Chemical preparations for food moths
Insecticides for food pests can be purchased at hardware stores or specialty supermarkets. Chemicals must be used according to the instructions provided. The most effective poisons for eliminating food moths include:
- Eslanadez gel or liquid concentrate.”
- Concentrated emulsion "Breeze".
- Aerosol insecticides “Armol”, “Antimol”, “Raptor: protection against moths”.
It is necessary to poison insects during the absence of all family members and pets, as some products can be hazardous to health. Before working in a hazardous area, protect your respiratory tract with a respirator or medical mask.
Glue trap for food moths
Food products and all utensils that come into contact with food must be hermetically sealed. After disinfection, you need to wash your hands and rinse your mouth if the smell hurts your throat. Then you should leave the room for a while.
The use of folk remedies
Traditional methods will also help get rid of insects. Moths cannot tolerate strong odors, so odorous oils, foods and herbs are used to combat them:
- Essential oils of lavender, geranium, cloves, wormwood. They soak cotton swabs and put them in kitchen cabinets, use them in scent lamp mixtures, and add them to wet cleaning water.
- Citrus zest. The dried peel is sewn into canvas bags, which are placed in food storage areas.
- Vinegar. Shelves, cabinets, countertops are treated with a strong solution.
- Dried herbs. Dried bunches of aromatic herbs (dill, tansy, lavender) hang on the walls, placed on shelves and inside food cabinets.
Substances with a strong odor repel insects, but do not have a destructive effect on them. Therefore, it is better to use folk remedies in combination with other means of combating moths.
Moths that are harmful in the house
There are many species of moths around the world. There are species that live in unsightly places, such as near bats in their cave colonies. The life of most moth species is associated with plants. Often such “random guests” end up in residential premises. For example, apple (apple) moth , which gardeners are fighting. Or poplar (poplar) moth , in which butterflies only feast on the sweet secretions of poplars, and caterpillars destroy the leaves of the tree. Interestingly, they do not like silver poplars. It is the poplar moth that often irritates city dwellers in the spring.
However, there are also such nondescript villainous butterflies that have been settling in human homes for a long time and causing him a lot of real (material) troubles. Their appearance is rather attractive: wings with golden scales, the finest fringe on the hind legs and a fluffy body. Flying butterflies do not spoil anything, since they eat practically nothing, because their proboscis and intestines are underdeveloped. And the average lifespan of these cute flying insects lasts from several days to three weeks. The moth butterfly can be considered a long-liver, living up to 35 days. And the poor insects die from... exhaustion.
The voracious caterpillars that emerge from eggs (before pupation) behave worse. They are omnivores, although each species has its own taste preferences. The bodies of many caterpillars are wrapped in cases that look like narrow tubes. They are needed to reduce moisture evaporation. The caterpillar makes “clothes” from a variety of materials, glued together with sticky secretions of the spinning gland. She has to increase her “size” as she grows.
Let's divide all harmful moths into two large groups: kitchen and wool . This will make it easier to choose the right pest control products. Do not treat cereals with Dichlorvos! And a closet with clothes is not the best place for garlic.
Preventive measures
The best way to prevent food moths from recurring in your home is to be careful when shopping. It is best to buy cereals in transparent packages so that you can visually assess their quality. Foreign spots, small lumps, thin cobwebs are signs of food moth infestation.
You should not buy food on sale - this is often how the seller gets rid of goods affected by bugs.
It is better to heat flour or cereal purchased at a big discount in the oven at a temperature of + 80 ... 120 ° for 30 minutes or put it in the freezer overnight. It is recommended to pack all bulk products in hermetically sealed containers so that food moths cannot reach them. Cabinets need to be cleaned regularly to ensure that stitched or insect-infested grains are removed promptly. Kitchen countertops should be cleaned from time to time with a strong vinegar solution, which repels food moths.
Habitat, lifestyle and nutrition
In nature, the variegated one lives in those places where balsam, fragrant, pyramidal poplars grow:
- in the European part of Russia;
- on the territory of the Caucasus;
- in the Central Asian region.
Adults don't feed. They live off what they stored in the caterpillar stage. But the larvae have an unusual throat. Young leaves eaten:
- drain;
- pears;
- apple trees;
- poplars and other trees.
Only the larva can gnaw a hole about 2 cm in diameter in the leaf. If there are a large number of pests, trees can be left without leaves in July-August.
Penetrating into a person’s home, poplar moths settle in chandeliers, lampshades, household appliances, containers with bulk products, and dried fruits. They also love different secluded places: behind furniture, heating radiators, and so on.
