Ew! GROSS!!

UPDATE:  We did still see these moths for a couple weeks, but thankfully they seem to be gone now. (Aug '13)

This post isn't for the faint of stomach -- especially if bugs gross you out!  It may seem like a strange post, but blogging is also a way for me to document our lives.  Unfortunately, there is bad with the good sometimes.

Last July after we arrived back home from Florida, we noticed these moths in the pantry and flying around the kitchen.  "Pantry" moths or Indian Meal Moths to be exact.

Our neighbor told us what they were and warned us that they had to throw hundreds of dollars worth of food away when they had this problem a few years back.  Seeing as the Knight lost his job shortly after we started dealing with these bugs, I didn't want to lose a bunch of food.  We did have to throw out quite a bit of pasta, powdery mixes, nuts, chocolate and (for some reason they love) Cracker Jacks!  They leave webbing behind and their nasty little larva. {shutter} It's so gross.  We smashed them all.  Warnings say not to vacuum them up or throw them away as they can still hatch and infest somewhere else.

We cleaned through the pantry twice in a month.  The first time wasn't real thorough, so we had to do it again. Opening and checking inside cake mixes (as they can eat through the plastic bags and crawl through the smallest holes).  We set up traps and killed a few moths that were flying around.

They seemed to go away.  I had cleaned very thoroughly the last time and thought for sure I had gotten everything -- cleaning every crack in the pantry I could find. We bought and borrowed heavy plastic containers to put the grains and snacks in.  I did a lot of research online and found that their gestational period is around 40 days.  So once we passed 40, 50+ days, I thought we were done with them!  I had also read that they like pet food.  We have cat and bird food in the garage, but we had no reason to think they were down there.  (Our garage is attached to the house and you can enter the house in the basement through the garage.)

However, that wasn't the end of these pests.  My heart sank when I began to see them again.  We immediately bought expensive, sealed containers for the pet food.  We checked things in the pantry, and they almost didn't seem to be coming from in the pantry.  I'm about panicked at this time because who knows where else they could have set up shop!  We have a vent in the hallway that buts up to the back pantry wall.  The Knight took the cover off, and we saw a couple in there but no evidence they were living there.  Thankfully!  He also checked the attic as there were a couple holes drilled for wiring up to the attic. Still no evidence of them.

We called the exterminator.  They wanted to charge $130 to come out and spray.  They were kind and told us that we could use Clorox spray to clean the pantry, and it would do the same thing their spray would do.  So we once more emptied the pantry and fumigated the place with the Clorox spray.  Twice just to be sure.  [They aren't kidding when they say use in a well ventilated area!  I had the kitchen stove vent on and the back door open with a fan blowing the air outside in the cold winter just so we could breathe while hiding out in the basement and the back room.]  My neighbor had suggested they might be behind the shelving, so I made sure to squirt extra along the boards so that it would drip down behind them.

At some point, I can't remember when now, we found larva inside CD cases we have in the pantry.  Never thought to look there!  Online I read that someone found them nested in their kitchen equipment (a mixer or something).  I panicked again!  We stuck the VCR and stereo out in the cold all night to freeze anything that might be living inside.

Boards are nailed up around the sides and plyboard shelves lay on top.

Shortly after that, they came back with a vengeance.  We bought traps again.  This time they caught a disturbing amount of moths.  I knew we had to tear the pantry apart.  So yesterday we emptied the pantry again.  I'm really thankful I have an area to put all this stuff.

An all too familiar site (except for the flowers from my secret sister and my dad)

Last night, the Knight and I tore out the shelves.  This is what we found behind the first board we removed.  Definite evidence they were behind the shelves.

Close up of one of their "nests". You can see a couple larva.

This was the worse section under the top board.

This is the end of a board.  They squished between the wall and the board.

This is the top view of the above board.

Here's a full view of the empty bugged pantry.  All those dark spots on the "yellow" strips are bug evidence.

I've already sprayed it down -- too tired to scrub last night.  We will scrub it down, fill holes and paint the pantry while it's at this stage.  Hoping to buy some different shelving since the wall are a bit bowed and left an opportunity for the moths to nest in there.

I truly hope and PRAY this is the last we see of them.