How to get rid of food moth in 4 steps

Found in a jar of croup mole? These small parasites multiply incredibly quickly and spoil the food at the same speed. Today I will tell you how to get rid of the food moth, which folk remedies to use and how to prevent the appearance of the moth at home once and for all.

Moth spoils food very quickly and reproduces just as quickly.

Everything you need to know about moths

The first thing I would like to emphasize is that the moth in the kitchen in no way indicates the level of pollution in the room. You can easily bring it into the house along with the purchased products, for example, with flour, groats or even cookies. How so? Unfortunately, some manufacturers and sellers are careless about the rules of processing and storage of products.

An insect can also get into the apartment through ventilation openings.

Appearance and varieties

You do not know what the food moth looks like? Externally, it looks like a small gray butterfly with a maximum length of 10 mm and stripes or inclusions on the body. She prefers nocturnal lifestyle, flies chaotically, because of what it is difficult to kill with his hands.

The food moth can be of different types:

• flour moth;
• cocoa fire;
• barn pit (often called “cereal moth”);
• dried fruit moth;
• potato

Someone may ask whether food moth eats clothes? No - she "regales" only products, but clothes are worn by clothes. Regardless of what the mole eats, the pattern of action to eliminate it is the same.

Regardless of the type of insect, methods for its disposal are identical

Life cycle

Despite the short life of adults (no more than three weeks), this insect has time to lay about 400 eggs.

Once in the house, the insect chooses the most attractive place for itself, without neglecting the splintering of plastic bags. Most often the mole settles in tea, pasta, cereals and dried fruits.

The photo shows the life cycle of the moth.

You need to know the enemy by sight, so let's dwell on the life cycle of this insect. Clothes and food moths go through the same stages of life:

• Breeding. For mating, female butterflies secrete special pheromones that attract males. The second die almost immediately after mating, females find a place to lay eggs. After the last egg is laid, the female also dies.

Externally, moth eggs resemble small white grains, similar to semolina. Closeup photo

• Larva. Hatching moth larvae almost immediately begin to actively feed. She can crawl from place to place in search of food. Before pupation, the larva looks for a place.

The length of the larvae reach about 1.5 cm

The period from the appearance of an egg to the formation of a pupa takes about 1.5 weeks. During this time, the larva grows up to 1.5 cm in length and, as a rule, begins to move actively, leaving a trail. At this stage, it is easiest to find.

• Baby doll. In the body of the pupa the insect spends only a few days. At the end of the term, it turns into a butterfly, ready to continue the race.

Getting rid of the moth

How to deal with food moths?

Step 1. Foci detection

To get rid of the moth, the first thing you need to find the main places of their clusters. To do this, you need to conduct an inspection:

• Products and kitchen cabinets. Revise all food items that you have in your cabinets. Look for not only "butterflies", but also the larvae along with the eggs. Do not overlook and groceries in cartons, animal feed - all that you do not store in the refrigerator. Dispose of contaminated food immediately.

Found the mole or its larva in the croup? It’s better to throw away the product immediately.

• Ceiling. The insect can hide on the ceiling, ceiling plinth, at the base of the chandelier or at the edge of the wallpaper. So carefully inspect the specified places.
• Cabinet tops. Another place where you can find the mole.

Step 2. Stripping eggs and larvae

After finding the moth's habitat, the instructions for action are as follows:

Picture	Procedure
	Elimination of the source of infection. As soon as you find products with signs of infection, immediately transfer them into a plastic bag, tie it tightly and send it to the urn.
	Cleaning cabinets. Remove everything (even the shelves) from the kitchen cabinets and sweep the surfaces with a vacuum cleaner. Pay special attention to corners and crevices. Then wash the furniture with a solution of vinegar or soap, you can also use special tools, such as Raptor or Antimol.
	Cleaning the dishes. Be sure to thoroughly wash all the dishes in which the food was stored. Freeze it for 3-4 days in the freezer or warm it up for 5 minutes in the microwave. I would still recommend to resort to freezing - as a more efficient way.

After processing the dishes can be arranged on the shelves

Step 3. Getting rid of adult insects

When the larvae are finished, you need to take care of small "butterflies" that have already scattered around the kitchen. Adults are eliminated in two ways.

Males fall into special traps that can be purchased at the store of household chemicals. The principle of their work is simple - the trap is treated with pheromone of females, which attracts males. Since females cannot breed without males, traps prevent the reappearance of the moth.

The price of a trap for male moths ranges from 200-300 rubles

Females can be exterminated in a proven “old-fashioned” way - a folded newspaper or a fly swatter. Other options have not been invented yet.

Step 4. Food processing

In the fight against moths, it is important not only to get rid of the source products of infection, but also to identify potentially contaminated supplies that may be intact in appearance. What to do with them? It is best to throw it away, of course, but there are two ways to save the croup:

1. Sift or enumerate products. Get rid of stuck particles, and leave the intact grain in the freezer for at least 3-4 days.

To prevent the reappearance of the moth, all flour and cereals must be sifted and sieved.

1. Warm up foods. Pour out the previously processed cereal onto a baking sheet and heat it in the oven for at least 40 minutes at a temperature of 60 degrees.

Preventive measures

In order for the mole in the croup not to start, it is necessary to adhere to some preventive measures that prevent its occurrence. Make it simple enough - it is worth getting used to always keep groceries in tightly closed glass jars.

Mole will not penetrate into glass jars, so it is better to store cereals in them

And in order to shine the risk of the appearance of the moth to zero, I recommend using one of the proposed means (as personal experience shows, very effective).

Many flavors (including citrus) prevent the appearance of moths.

Picture	Description
	Citrus peel. Spread on the corners of the cabinet with groceries of lemon or orange peel. This insect is afraid of citrus aroma.
	Vinegar. First, wash the cabinets with soap and water, then dry and wipe the surfaces with vinegar.
	Garlic. Another available remedy for food moths. Spread a few cloves of garlic in containers with cereals.
	Bay leaf. It, as well as garlic, must be decomposed into jars.
	Sagebrush. The smell of wormwood scares away the mole, so you can lay it out in the cupboard of the kitchen unit. A mole in the apartment will no longer appear.
	Carnation or Geranium Scent. Dampen a cotton swab in the essential oil of geranium or clove and put it in a cabinet with groceries.
Tobacco. Launched tobacco will be an excellent moth repeller.

Lavender - another means of scaring moths at home

Each of these tools is very useful in the fight against these winged insects in the kitchen.

Finally

I tested the described means on my own experience, they proved their effectiveness. So I recommend that you take my advice and forget what a mole is. Want even better to figure out how to get rid of moths? Watch the video in this article and ask questions in the comments.