Food moth: how to get rid of a pest by simple methods

food moth how to get rid
Food moth how to get rid

Hello! I once sat in one of the winter evenings in front of the TV - I watched the series. And so I wanted to eat dried fruits.

I remembered that somewhere there was a bag of apples. I found it pretty quickly, but was disappointed: food moth worked hard on apples.

It was insulting to lose delicious apples, but the task of destroying the moth was more important. Want to learn how to get rid of food moths? What foods are most often the cause of its appearance? Then in the article below I will write everything in detail.

How to get rid of food moth

Any housewife can at some point bewildered in his kitchen flying midges, which appeared unclear from where. Congratulations, you have a food moth! Where from ?!

We advise you to look into containers with cereals and other bulk products. Did you see the larvae and dark crawling insects? Throw away everything immediately and arrange general cleaning in your lockers.

What is the harm

Food moth is an insect of the butterfly family. The adult has an inconspicuous gray or dark brown color, the larvae look like small caterpillars of light beige color, can reach 2 cm in length. The moth feels great in the dark, therefore it is usually active in the dark.

Important!
Her favorite foods are cereals, dried fruits, tea, pasta. The lifespan of an adult moth (butterfly) is several days. Before that, it goes through the stage of an egg, wingless larva, cocoon, and then it turns into a butterfly.

Moreover, the larva can live up to 60 days. Therefore, the absence of flying insects in your kitchen is not a guarantee of the purity of products. The main thing is to periodically check the contents of the containers in which you store bulk stocks.

What is the harm of food moth to health? To begin with, an adult lays up to 400 eggs during its life, and each larva changes its skin several times. Thus, the products in which the food moth has settled are infested with feces and peeled larvae. The consequence of taking contaminated food is intoxication of the body.

How does it appear

Moth cannot appear from scratch. Even if you are a wonderful housewife and keep the house clean and tidy, you are not immune from the appearance of this nasty midges. Moth can easily fly to you from the ventilation grill from the neighbors or through an open door or window.

You can bring it in a bag with other products you just bought, especially if you buy flour, buckwheat, rice and other cereals in packaged bags, and not in sealed packages.

But if an adult individual got into a jar with a loose product, practically nothing can stop it from breeding - neither humidity, nor lack of fresh air, nor plastic packaging. Food moth is able to infect all the cereals standing nearby in the same cabinet.

And if you saw a flying creature in your kitchen, this means only one thing - your products are already infected, and it's time to declare war on the vile! We will figure out how to get rid of moths with food by affordable means.

Means of struggle

There is no one universal means of combating food moth, but if you use several proven methods, the result will almost certainly be successful.

Advice!
Throw away all infected products. Carefully inspect all containers with cereals and cereal products. Semolina, peas, beans, buckwheat, flour, mung bean, spaghetti, dried fruits, coffee, tea, cocoa - everything can be infected with an impudent insect.

If you doubt the purity of a particular cereal, then in this case it is still better to get rid of the product than to delay the fight against food moth for many months.

Wash dishes and cabinets with soap and water. Food moth is afraid of soap and sunlight. Wash all containers and cabinets thoroughly with soap and water, paying particular attention to crevices where cocoons may remain.

Wipe the cabinet walls with vinegar. Vinegar is a food moth repellent. Leave the cabinet doors open until completely dry.

Use pheromone traps. If it is not possible to destroy all food stocks, use special pheromone traps that attract males of males.

This is one way to remove moths in your kitchen. But be careful - with the window open, there is a risk of attracting all the mole from the neighboring apartments. The smell of traps is very strong, and it can remain in the apartment for several days.

5 steps to eliminate and prevent

Moth in the kitchen is not only flying moths, but also their pupae, larvae and eggs.

So, in order to remove pests forever, you need to deal with them in a complex way - find and eliminate the source, clean the furniture / ceiling, throw away everything that has been infected and process potentially infected products.

Attention!
Food moth can be of different types. Most often in the kitchen in a city apartment you can find: a flour moth, a little less often - a cocoa moth (very similar to a clothes moth) and a southern barn moth (fighting it is more difficult than with others). Where do they come from even in the cleanest kitchen cabinets?

Tiny, almost invisible eggs fall into the kitchen in packages of cereals, cereals, gallets, dried fruits, flour, spices and other groceries. Then, within a week, larvae of the food moth hatch from them, which subsequently pupate and turn into moths.

Step 1. We are looking for the outbreak and infected products

Moth eggs look like small white sticky grains, similar to semolina. At first, the larvae look like small whitish worms, and then they grow to 1.27 cm and have black or brown heads. Another clear sign of food contamination is cobwebs.

To get rid of food moth, the first thing you need to do:

  1. Inspection of kitchen cabinets and products. Inspect all the supplies that are stored in kitchen cabinets - you need to find not only the source, but also the products already infected with larvae and eggs.
  2. Do not forget to check and not unpacked groceries, because moth easily eats cardboard, foil and polyethylene.
  3. Pay special attention to the edges of the lids of the jars - they may have a spider web of moths.
  4. Remember that not only groceries can be infected, but also animal feed, seeds for birds, fishing bait, that is, almost everything that is not stored in the refrigerator.
  5. Inspection of the ceiling. Ceiling, ceiling skirting boards, edges of wallpaper and the base of the chandelier. Moth likes to hide in dark crevices and corners.
  6. Inspection of the tops of cabinets. Here you can also see moth cocoons.

By the way, if you doubt whether there is a moth at all in your kitchen or, say, did you manage to get it out after mopping up, then inspect the room at night - adults will gather around a burning chandelier.

Step 2. We carry out a total cleaning

Eliminate the source and products with obvious signs of infection. As soon as you find which product has become the source of the spread of insects, wrap it tightly in a plastic bag and immediately throw it away, or rather burn it completely.

Thoroughly clean. Empty the kitchen cabinets and remove the shelves, and then vacuum them and the inner walls of the cabinet, paying particular attention to corners and crevices.

A vacuum cleaner (without a nozzle or with a small nozzle) will tighten the hidden moth and prevent the inconspicuous eggs from remaining in the closet. This method is very effective, so if you do not have a vacuum cleaner, you should ask friends. The main thing after the procedure is to throw out the bag or freeze it in the freezer for 3-4 days.

Next, wipe the furniture with a solution of vinegar, laundry soap and / or a special food moth remover, such as Antimol or Raptor.

Wash all containers and cans. This can be done with vinegar or laundry soap. The container in which the infected products were located should be frozen for 3-4 days or heated in the microwave for 5 minutes.

Vacuum the ceiling. If you find moth settlements on the ceiling, ceiling skirting boards, tops of cabinets, near the chandelier, and also under the edges of the departed wallpaper, then vacuum these places.

Step 3. Kill adults and stick traps

How to catch adults who have already scattered in the corners of cabinets and kitchens? Males (incidentally, harmless, but fertilizing females) can be caught using an adhesive trap (photo below).

The principle of its action is simple - a trap processed by pheromone of females attracts males and “catches” them, and without males, a moth cannot reproduce, of course. Thus, pheromone traps will help prevent the re-emergence of insects.

Glue trap
Glue trap

You can buy such a trap for 200-300 rubles in online stores and household chemical stores.

Females will have to be killed by traditional methods - a fly swatter or a folded newspaper, since they fly poorly and slowly, then this is not so difficult.

Step 4. We process potentially infected products

So, you threw away the source product and products with obvious signs of infection, but what about the rest of the supplies that seem clean or were slightly infected?

It’s easiest to throw them away as well, but you can save potentially infected food if you wish in the following two ways:

  • After sifting and sorting through cereals, flour or another product, keep it in the freezer or on the balcony (in winter) for at least 3-4 days.
  • After pouring the product on a baking sheet, warm it in the oven at a temperature of 60 degrees for at least 40 minutes. Before heating it, of course, you need to clean it.

Keep in mind that the first way of processing, although longer, but retains all the vitamins and nutritional properties of food.

Step 5. We carry out prevention and protect products

Pour new or cold / heat-treated products (including animal feed) into glass, thick plastic or metal containers / jars with tight-fitting lids.

Important!
This will protect the supplies from the penetration of moths and prevent its escape outside the container. Recall that cardboard, paper, foil and plastic bags are easily eaten by it.

In the fight against moths in the kitchen, a folk recipe is also useful - storing products with natural repellents:

  • With a couple of leaves of bay leaf;
  • With peeled but not chopped garlic (a couple of heads are enough);
  • With orange peels.

On the shelves you can also put something out of the above, either: lavender twigs, birch leaves, geraniums, wormwood, rosemary, laundry soap or strongly smelling essential oils. For example, fir oil is suitable, with which you can moisten a cotton pad and leave it in the cabinet.

Remember that these folk remedies scare away adult moths, preventing it from laying eggs in products and on shelves, but they will not affect the larvae.

Moreover, if you suddenly put a package of infected cereals on a shelf with lavender, the moth larvae will not die in it, and the butterflies that appear later will no longer be afraid of the smell of lavender. That is why it is necessary to deal with domestic pests comprehensively.

And a little more about prevention

The following tips will help you avoid the appearance of a moth

  • Try not to store food for more than 2-4 months and, of course, do not store supplies that have expired.
  • Store foods that you rarely use in the refrigerator.
  • Buy dry foods in small quantities to manage to eat them for a couple of months.
  • Buy groceries only from reputable manufacturers and, if possible, check the quality of goods in the store. For fidelity, freshly bought cereals, cereals, flour, nuts, dried fruits and other products freeze for 3-4 days (in dry form).
  • Keep animal feed, such as seeds for birds or, say, fishing baits, out of the kitchen.

10 best folk recipes against food moth in cereals and other products

A gray-brown butterfly (food moth) can start at every mistress. The reason may be purchased bags with cereals, flour and other dry bulk products, infected with moth larvae. Moths are attracted by long-stored cereals, and, going to their goal, neither closed packs nor plastic bags stop it.

How to get rid?

First you need to get rid of the cereals that the moth has already visited. After a thorough audit, you can fight with food moth with proven folk remedies.

The smell of lavender and citrus moth does not tolerate. The spread peels of orange and lemon in the corners of the cabinets, as well as lavender oil applied to cotton swabs or a small bouquet of these flowers wrapped in gauze will help get rid of food moths.

Advice!
Vinegar processing is also effective. First you need to thoroughly wash all hard-to-reach places, cracks with soap and water, ventilate the room, and then wipe the entire surface of the cabinet where bulk materials are stored, wipe with vinegar.

Garlic will come to help in the fight against moths. If you put garlic cloves in containers where cereals are stored, its smell will scare away uninvited guests. Garlic does not affect the smell of cereals and their taste.

Bay leaf is also not to the liking of food moths. It is necessary to lay out bay leaves around the perimeter of shelves with cereals, as well as in jars where products that attract moths are stored.

Moths are scared away by the smells of cloves, geraniums, rosemary, tansy, fir, rosemary, basil. Aromatherapy oils with these odors should be applied to cotton pads and laid out in places where moth can be created.

The smell of wormwood does not like moths. Small bushes of wormwood, spread out in places of storage of products adored by moth, scare it away.

Walnut leaves with a specific smell help well in the fight against moths. It is enough to spread a few fresh walnut leaves in the corners of the cabinet so that the moth for a long time will forget the path to the products stored there.

A proven tool is natural camphor and camphor essential oil. The camphor smell will not allow moths to settle in food lockers.

Unpleasant moths tobacco smell. Shelled tobacco is a good cure for food moths. Pungent odors deter moths. After thorough cleaning and elimination of infected products, you can sprinkle perfume in the cabinet. Thus, the smell unpleasant for moths will not allow to spoil the products.

Prevention methods - tips for housewives

  • After buying cereals in a store, it is necessary to calcine it in the oven, and then pour it into glass containers, cans or plastic containers with a tight lid;
  • Keep the kitchen clean: wipe the shelves with a bite, ventilate, apply plant oils, with a smell that is unpleasant for moths;
  • Periodically review stocks and long-stored cereals, if necessary, fry in the oven for 15 minutes at a temperature of 60 degrees;
  • It is worth disassembling the littered corners of the house: long-lying things, grandmother's dowry (shawls, feather-beds, sweaters, pillows, rolled-up carpets). After all, a moth can live not only in cereals, but also in things. And, if you do not completely eliminate her den, then after a while she will visit the kitchen again.

How to effectively get rid of food moth in the kitchen?

Food moth is the pest that most housewives face. It appears even with constant maintenance of cleanliness. Larvae are often found in cereals, flour and other products. Reproduction of moths occurs quickly, so it is quite difficult to get rid of it. This can only be done with a competent approach.

What is

Everyone should know everything about food moths. How to get rid of a pest is also important information. Externally, the insect looks like a small gray butterfly with small splashes or stripes on the body. Its length reaches a maximum of 10 mm.

Attention!
The insect flies very quickly and randomly changes direction, so it’s very difficult to kill it with your hands. Food moth prefers a nocturnal lifestyle. Accordingly, it is rarely observed during the day.

The lifespan of food moths is a maximum of 3 weeks. During this period, it actively reproduces. It is worth noting that the insect lays eggs in most products. It can be cereals, bitch, seeds, tea. After some time, larvae appear that can spoil the food. They leave their excrement and skin. Naturally, spoiled foods are best avoided.

One of the varieties of food moth is considered fruit. She lays eggs mainly on dried fruits, nuts and seeds.

It is worth noting that the pest tolerates a lack of ventilation and an insufficient amount of oxygen. It is able to reproduce even in a tightly closed container.

Where does it come from

When the kitchen is always clean, one can only wonder where the moth came from. Most often, insects get into the apartment along with infected products that were bought in a store where storage rules were not respected.

As a result, over time, larvae and eggs appear in the apartment. Moreover, adults often fly through the ventilation system, through open windows and doors.

How to get rid

In order to get rid of insects once and for all, you need to know some of their features. You need to understand that running around the kitchen and swat butterflies is completely ineffective, because the bulk of the larvae continues to develop.

It is very important to destroy not only butterflies, but also eggs along with larvae. It should be borne in mind that the reproduction of the pest has no seasonality. So, food moth can appear in the apartment at any time.

Destroying the moth larva is quite simple. To do this, you must first sort through all the products and do the cleaning in the pantry. The proof of the presence of the pest is small pellets at the bottom of containers and bags, as well as glued grains, coated with a touch of gray shade.

To remove the moth, it is enough to warm the infected cereals in the oven or in a pan. The temperature should be at least 60º C, and the duration of the procedure - one and a half hours. You can also put food in the freezer for two days. The temperature should be at least -10º C. If during the inspection it was revealed that the cereal was infected with more than 15–20%, then it should be thrown out.

Moth traps

The easiest way to get rid of butterflies is by mechanical means. Naturally, few will clap their hands all day.Sticky traps and stickers are best.

Important!
If traces of food moth have been noticed in the kitchen, you need to immediately begin pest control. You must first review all bulk products. If a pest is found in cereals, legumes, flour or nuts, then this product should be discarded. Then it is recommended to wipe all shelves, tables and cabinets.

Slots where larvae can hide should be smeared with vinegar and treated with clean water. After cleaning, all doors must be left open until completely dry. Thanks to such measures, it will be possible to get rid of a small number of pests. If there are too many insects, more serious measures will be needed.

Folk ways

Not everyone knows that food moths do not tolerate fresh air. Therefore, regular ventilation of the room and all cabinets is shown.

Garlic helps to cope with the pest. It is enough to put a few cloves in tables, cabinets, as well as in containers with cereals. However, there is an opinion that the moth gradually gets used to the garlic smell.

Some experts prefer to additionally use sachets filled with bay leaf, pepper and cloves. The aroma of these spices does not affect the food, but scares off insects. You can also fill with mint or lavender.

The use of citrus peels is considered quite effective. Usually it is laid out on the cabinets. On the windowsill, keep the geranium. This plant often repels insects.

Chemicals

Many housewives often come across moths. How to get rid of it, if you avoid the use of smelling means in the kitchen? This is a difficult question, because if there are too many moths in the room, you will have to resort to household chemicals. The main thing is to follow all the recommendations indicated in the instructions and use a respirator.

Advice!
Insecticides. These products contain poisonous substances that can destroy most insects. They are available in the form of aerosols.

Moth Protection Raptor helps destroy butterflies and larvae. The product is sprayed onto furniture, carpets, and even clothing. The composition remains effective for 12 months.

Armol instantly kills moth butterflies and has a prolonged action aimed at the destruction of larvae. The tool is often used for processing carpets and furniture. The action is observed for six months.

Combat Super Spray is considered a universal tool. It fights not only with food moths, but also with other flying pests. The composition is usually sprayed on the walls of the furniture and in the corners of the room.

When using the mentioned insecticides, it is necessary to ensure that the substance does not get on food.

Repellents. Specialists who know how to get rid of moths in the kitchen choose such products. They repel pests and prevent egg laying. As a rule, repellents are sold in the form of plates, tablets and briquettes.

They may contain naphthalene, which has carcinogenic properties, because of which similar compounds cannot be used in residential premises. Accordingly, before buying, you must carefully study the label.

The most effective repellents are Desmol tablets, Zitol and Phytocide cassettes, and Moleboy plates.

Attention!
Section from the moth. Such funds are used to prevent the appearance of moths. They have a pronounced aroma of mandarin, lavender or chamomile. There are also odorless sections. They are usually installed in wardrobes, but today they are often used in the kitchen.

Such funds secrete a substance that prevents the reproduction of pests and repels butterflies. Depending on the manufacturer, one section is enough for 4-6 months.

Prevention

It is much easier to avoid the appearance of food moths than to destroy it. For this purpose, it is worth resorting to such preventive measures:

  1. In the kitchen, do not keep a lot of stocks of cereals, pasta and flour.
  2. Preferred quality brands of tea, bulk products and dried fruits should be preferred.
  3. Store cereals in containers with a tight lid.
  4. Fruits and vegetables should not be left outside the refrigerator.
  5. After buying the cereals can be calcined in the oven.
  6. You must regularly clean the kitchen. So, all the shelves should be wiped with a solution of vinegar, and lay out the napkins soaked in essential oil.
  7. The kitchen needs to be ventilated several times a day.
  8. All cabinets should be periodically disassembled.

After measures have been taken to destroy the moth, it is necessary to repeat all the actions in a month. It is also recommended that you check the products each time before preparing them.

Eliminate kitchen pest

Food moth - a butterfly of a gray-brown color 1 cm long. She settles in the kitchen, eating mainly dry foods - cereals, tea, dried fruits.

Moth lives for 2-3 weeks, managing to leave a huge offspring. Moth larvae spoil food by infecting them with their feces and the remains of corpses. There are no such products.

Therefore, if you notice a food moth at home, do not hesitate to destroy it.

How to start?

Many people believe that moth appears in kitchens that are not kept clean. However, this is not so. So where does the food moth come from?

These insects can be found even in the cleanest housewives. For example, the cause of the "infection" of the kitchen can serve as a bag brought with flour, cereals, other bulk products and even sweets.

Important!
Having barely appeared, the food moth, whose larvae had not yet made itself felt, already feels at home. The moth immediately settles in products attractive to her, even if for this it is necessary to gnaw on her way cellophane bags.

In addition, insects extremely quickly multiply: gluttonous larvae of food moths appear from eggs into the light, which will soon become butterflies.

Folk methods of struggle

You can get rid of moths with the help of improvised means. There are methods that have helped more than one generation in this difficult struggle. So, how to deal with food moth folk remedies, and what is needed for this?

First of all, you need to get rid of those products that the moth has already ruined. Do not regret the products: if small white larvae with dark heads or moth butterflies are seen in them, the product must be discarded. Food that the pest has not yet reached should be stored in cans or glass jars.

The famous folk remedy for food moth is garlic. In a container that stores products of interest to the moth, you need to put a clove of garlic - it will scare away uninvited guests.

Moth does not tolerate the smell of vinegar, how to get rid of food moth with it? Before wiping any cracks with vinegar, first rinse the shelves and cupboards with soap and water and then ventilate the room. Particular attention should be paid to the narrowest crevices and inaccessible places - this is where insects can hide.

How to remove food moth with lavender? All that is required is to lay out the small dried bouquets of this plant in the kitchen. At the same time, they can be wrapped in thin gauze. The smell of lavender moth is not to your liking.

Advice!
Another fragrant remedy for food moths is bay leaf. It can be laid out both on shelves with bulk products, and directly in the containers in which they are stored.

The aromas of fir oil, geranium, tansy, and rosemary flowers, as well as the smell of such spices as cloves, are no less effective against the pest.

Other means

How to get rid of food moth if folk remedies do not help? In this case, you will have to resort to the help of purchased products: repellents, the action of which is based on natural components, and insecticides that contain chemistry.

One of the best remedies is sticky traps for food moths.They do not contain chemicals, but only attract moth butterflies to themselves due to the exuding smell.

How to destroy food moth using chemistry? Everything is simple - just use the insecticide in accordance with the instructions that accompany it.

The only caveat: you should periodically change the selected agent, as individuals who survived after the attack of the insecticide will have immunity to it.

Prevention

The fight against food moths is a long and difficult matter, therefore it is easier to prevent the appearance of these insects.

The following simple steps will help the hostess secure her kitchen:

  • You can seal the ventilation hole with a dense net - this will prevent moths from moving to the apartment from their neighbors.
  • Keep the kitchen clean.
  • For prevention, you can use a folk remedy against food moth - lavender. Her dried bouquets will prevent the appearance of gluttonous guests.
  • Bulk products purchased should be immediately poured into glass containers. If it turns out that there was a food moth in them, how to get rid of it will not be a big question - you can just get rid of the jar painlessly.

Thanks to simple folk remedies, traps or effective insecticides, you can forever forget how food moth looks and how harmful it is to food.

Food moth in an apartment - how to get rid of it at home with the help of folk remedies?

Food moth is a pretty serious pest and you need to get rid of it immediately as soon as you notice the presence of an insect in your room.

Attention!
This creature does not just eat food, it can spoil it with its feces, laying off larvae, as well as its lifeless body.

You must admit that finding a cooked moth corpse in your porridge is not a pleasant sight. It is sometimes quite difficult to deal with it, so in our article we will consider ways with which you can get rid of food moths at home, and also find out where it comes from.

Where does it come from?

Where does food moth come from if the apartment is always clean and tidy? The answer is simple: it’s not at all the carelessness of the owners or the insufficient frequency of cleaning. Larvae of food moths are most often bought by us in stores or in warehouses, from where they fall into our homes and begin to actively grow, multiply and spoil food.

The reasons for the moth larvae getting into the products are the negligence of sellers and manufacturers. Storing food in warehouses, they rarely think about sanitary standards, which allows insects to get into flour or cereals, after which larvae are deposited there.

It can be very difficult to notice them right away, but when several moths fly out of your flour stock in a motley swarm - this makes you think.

But, besides this, the moth can enter your home through the ventilation hole, flying from the neighbors, and also fly through an open window or door if you do not have mosquito nets.

Recognizing food moth is very simple: this insect grows no more than 10 millimeters in length and has a gray color. An interesting fact: only recently hatched individuals of an insect can devour your food supply, since an adult moth needs only water to feed.

Because of this, they often settle in the kitchen or in the bathroom to have constant access to moisture sources. In addition, this insect has the ability to reproduce quite quickly, which is why you need to get rid of food moth as soon as possible.

Important!
There are several ways to get rid of food moth at home: call a specialist, use household chemicals or use folk remedies. Calling the pest control does not justify the cost of paying for it, since several insects can not do much harm.

And if not so many moths are divorced, then it will be entirely possible to get rid of it at home by folk remedies.

Food moth, like most insects, does not tolerate the smell of lavender or citrus. To drive an insect out of your kitchen, you need to lay out orange peels or peeled orange slices everywhere. Lemon or lime may also be suitable. And if you have lavender oil, you can lubricate them with cabinets and shelves, where the moth was seen most often.

Vinegar will also help you get rid of food moths. First you need to conduct a thorough wet cleaning in the kitchen, then rinse all the shelves and drawers where food is stored with a solution of vinegar.

Another good remedy is garlic. He is able to scare away not only vampires, but also food moths. To do this, you need to decompose the peeled cloves into bags with cereals or flour, because of which the moth immediately retires from there. In this case, the taste of the products will not change.

By hanging garlands of bay leaves in your kitchen, you too can scare away a gluttonous insect.

If summer is in the yard, then such a wonderful plant as a nut will help get rid of the moth. Its freshly picked leaves should be laid out on shelves and in cupboards, which will make the moth disappear from your home in a short time.

You can buy cigarettes, get tobacco from them, pour it into matchboxes and arrange them in the open form where the moth appears most often.

Effective methods and tools

Surely every housewife was faced with such a problem as food moth, which usually appears in the kitchen and causes considerable harm to food.

Why does it appear?

First of all, it is worth saying that the habitat of such a moth is the kitchen: here, of course, it is most comfortable for her. Most often, her "nests" are found here. However, even if you got rid of the moth and eliminated the "nest", it may very soon turn out that the problem has not been solved - the moth appears in the same amount, or it has become even larger.

Advice!
If you throw away an object or product affected by a moth, this does not mean that it is not in other places. Getting rid of moths is a process that can drag on for a long time. It is very important to know where exactly it should be sought.

In the kitchen, moth most often lives in legumes or cereals, in baby food, as well as in muesli and cereal. Dry herbs, coffee, cocoa and teas are the ideal habitat for food moths.

Why exactly here? As a rule, all of the products listed above are stored in bags or jars, which can be easily penetrated by a kitchen moth. There she is warm and comfortable, she feels completely safe.

And it’s not a fact that the moth appeared in the apartment on its own - it’s quite possible that you brought it directly from the store, where the moth larvae could stay in bags or jars with their favorite “goodies” for a long time.

This insect will like products that are stored in cabinets for a long period or whose shelf life has long expired. Please note that the products spoil directly the larvae of the moth - an adult pest consumes only water.

Therefore, if you put an open source of water in your kitchen, then all the adult moth will be collected there rather than in the products.

However, how can a moth appear in a bag of flour or cereal if your house is kept perfectly clean? As we already said, you can easily bring a bag of moth from the market or from the store - it can be in sweets or bulk products. Adult moths easily get out of the bag and begin to spoil other products.

Kitchen moth, in spite of its name, does not necessarily eat food - it can also affect clothes. Your main task is to stop its reproduction in time, so that you do not get rid of the pest throughout the apartment. And to act in this case you need to be integrated. How to do this, we will tell you a little later.

What is harmful food moth?

Before telling how to get rid of food moths, we considered it important to inform you what exactly it is harmful and what damage it can cause if it settles in your apartment.

Attention!
Kitchen moth is harmful primarily because it spoils all food. Moth moths themselves do not cause significant harm to things or products. From eggs laid by the female, larvae appear over time; they are the main pests.

And the problem is not only that they eat cereals, nuts, sugar and the like. They also leave in the dry products that we store for the preparation of cereals, drinks, pastries, and so on, traces of their life: feces, husks or skins discharged during larva transformation into moles; corpses of larvae or adult moths; eggs laid by these pests.

And if the traces of the presence of moths are in the package with any product, then you have to throw away the entire package, and this is financial damage, agree!

Subsequently, the larvae become harmless moths, the main purpose of which is to continue the genus. As a rule, it is the moth males that are active: they can most often be found in the apartment. The male, having fertilized one female, immediately flies away in search of the second. So more and more harmful moth larvae appear.

Prevent occurrence

Of course, it is easier to prevent the appearance of a moth at home than to get rid of it later. Care must be taken in advance to prevent it from appearing in your kitchen.

First of all, remember the main rule: immediately after purchase, pour cereals, sugar and flour into glass, plastic or metal containers - the likelihood of moths falling into them is minimal. But it’s better to forget about packaging on fasteners or bags.

Please note that in a transparent container it is easy to see if there is a mole in it or not, which is not possible with bags or other packages.

Try to maintain order in the apartment: daily clean in the kitchen, do not allow crumbs, leftover food or food unpacked on the table. Immediately after eating, remove everything from the table, leaving the kitchen clean.

Ways to get rid of the pest

It's time to talk about which methods are best for getting rid of moths in the kitchen. As soon as you notice moth-affected foods, discard them immediately. Those that managed to survive, transfer to other, clean containers. All shelves, cabinets and utensils must be thoroughly washed using a soap solution.

Important!
Then gently wipe it all with a solution of vinegar, and after cleaning, ventilate the room. Please note that after such cleaning you need to monitor your kitchen for three days in a row. It is important that the larvae do not reappear. Perhaps, during the cleaning process, you did not notice another hearth or did not notice any cracks in the furniture where pests could hide.

Of course, in the fight against food moths, folk remedies have also shown their effectiveness. One option is garlic. It must be cleaned and, having divided into cloves, put them in containers with cereals. In each package a clove.

The garlic smell disappears very quickly, so you can not worry that the products will acquire a sharp aroma. A good alternative to garlic is lavender. Get rid of moths by simply placing a sprig of plants in the kitchen cabinet.

You can also place traps throughout the kitchen that attract moles through the smell of pheromones. You need to place them in all kitchen cabinets, many set traps throughout the apartment. Now it remains to wait.

One larva can live a maximum of sixty days; you will need to wait until the insect turns into an adult and falls into a trap. However, any chemistry is a potential harm to your health, so try to apply such techniques rarely, only if it is really necessary.

Various dried plants, such as sweet clover or geranium, are good for fighting moths.By the way, geraniums can simply be put in a pot in the kitchen. However, this method cannot be used if there are people with allergies in the family. The plant has a pungent odor, which can provoke various allergic reactions.

It is known that moth is very afraid of cold weather. That is why cold baiting can be a great helper in your hard fight against this pest. If you temporarily remove all containers with bulk products or cereals in the refrigerator, then the larvae will “fall asleep”.

However, this is a controversial method, because with the onset of heat, the larvae will wake up and begin even more active life. Therefore, we repeat, it is better to throw away infected products altogether.

Advice!
Much more difficult is the case with the deliverance of moths in the country. It is recommended to carry out a large general cleaning every time autumn falls - during this period of the year, the moth significantly reduces its activity and it is much easier to get rid of it.

In order to prevent infection, leave a couple of clover branches in the country house (in the dining room or in the kitchen) - it will be an excellent preventative measure against the appearance of the pest, and when you return to the country house in spring, you will not see moths on it.

Concluding our story about how to get rid of food moths, it is worth mentioning about various drugs and pills against moths, which are sold everywhere today.

It is important to know that such products are suitable only for indoor moths, but not for kitchen or food moths - by using these products in the kitchen, you can be poisoned. Use effective folk remedies, monitor cleanliness in the kitchen, do not forget about prevention, and then a moth defeat does not threaten products in your kitchen!

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