The Hard Times Cafe

I've had a lot of questions from some via  blog comments and e-mails about pantry pest.  So I thought now would be a good time to go over some ways of dealing with the uninvited guest.  The biggest of the pantry pest is the pantry moth.    Sadly just like it is not always possible to avoid the dreaded cockroach, i.e. bringing them home in a grocery bag, depositing an egg on your carpet from having stepped on one unaware at a store, the pantry moth is the same way.  No matter how hard you try you just can't always avoid it.  It is not the same moth that you find attracted to your light by the window at night either.  It is a small silver goldish  (hmm is that a color?) looking thing that lives to burrow into your dried goods.  Leaving an almost invisible web through the item, laying its larvae, then the larvae hatching in your food to increase the population.  Once they have invaded your pantry you will be hard pressed to totally ever get rid of them.  However that does not mean that you will loose the battle with protecting your food, you just have to make sure that you are prepared in advance.  As mentioned in  an earlier post your first line of defense is going to be the quality of product you buy.  If you buy expired dried goods or from a discount store you could very well be asking for trouble.  The longer an item sits in its wrapper the more chance it has to meet with infestation.  So best rule of thumb, buy from a store where turn over is good, even if that means paying a little more.  Does that totally guarantee your protected, of course not, but it does significantly increase your changes.  Your second line of defense is your storage containers which we went over in some detail in Part 3 of Preparing For Your Pantry Stockpile.  There is one more thing you can do, which I fully recommend and that is freezing your items.  We'll call it fumigation by freezing.  Its not complicated by any means,  but you  have to be very focused on follow through.

The freezing method will kill the live bug.   Here's how it works.  You put your item in a deeper freeze, either chest or upright is fine.  Do not use a refrigerator freezer as the temps really don't get cold enough to do the job, it needs to be 0 degrees or lower.  Leave it in the freezer for 72 hours than remove.  If you haven't got it in proper containers now is the time to do it.  Here's one of two problems. The cold will kill the live bug but most often will not touch the eggs.  So it is best after 30 to refreeze your grain, flour, whatever it is.  That will given the eggs a chance to hatch if there were any in there and by doing it in 30 day killing the newly live bugs before they get a chance to lay any eggs.  And if your really paranoid about infestation you can even do it a third time in another 30 days after the second 72 hour freeze.  Here's problem number two.  If you are like me and buy in large quantity you are going to be committed to your freezing regimen.  I will put my product in buckets before freezing then set 4 or 6 buckets at a time in my freezer and rotate through every 72 hours until I get through the end of my buckets and start over again in 30 days.  You have to be willing to make room in your freezer and to keep up on the right buckets on the right days.  As said before in Part 3, I do use bay leaves on top of my buckets before sealing.  Between my containers, freezing and bay leaves I've never had any bug problems from this method.

I have had bug problems when I left stuff in their original wrapper and didn't freeze, that's a whole other story but that is why I am sold on my buckets.  I've had some items in the same bucket for 4 or 5 years before and have never had a bug in them.  Even when I had a moth problem in my pantry they never made their way into my buckets.  There are other ways of fumigation: dry ice, heating and diatomaceous earth but freezing is the one I am most comfortable with.  Also you can do this easily if you live in a northern climate that gets below 0 and will stay their steadily for a minimum of 72 hours. 

Some things to ponder:

 

*Rotation is important too for bug control.

 

*Weevils are not pantry moths and are often found in stored grains.  They are considered "clean" and edible without being harmful to people. Freezing your grain products as mentioned about should take care of that.

 

*Remember that storing food in their original paper packaging is dangerous.  Packaging in meant to protect the item in transportation and while it is on the store shelves.  Often time insects or their larvae, can be in the creases of the packaging and over time on your pantry shelf will infest your product. 

 

Until next time at The Hard Time Cafe

 

The Intentional Peasant