You’ll Never Believe What the Pesky Pantry Insects Got Into This Time

Recently, my wife and I discovered a cluster of moths flying inside our very clean walk-in pantry. Thanks to Google, we quickly discovered the bugs were pantry moths and the only way to get rid of them is to throw everything out, and clean thoroughly. That's what we did two weeks ago and my update is just as alarming.

When I discussed this on-air several days ago, listeners were warning me they are tough to get rid of. But, we cleaned extra effectively and almost everything was thrown out. We even added air tight containers for everything that wasn't sealed. We had complete success, until two days ago. We spotted one of the moths on the ceiling so I killed it and threw it in the outside garbage.

Last night, I was making rice for the family and discovered the moths...inside a sealed glass jar. You've got to be kidding me!

This is going to sound disgusting, but there were four of the moths inside the jar and what looked like nests for the larvae, also inside the rice. This was a large glass jar with a lid screwed on tightly. They still got in.

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While reading up on these pesky pests, I discovered that you really need a container with a strong seal, otherwise they'll get in. And they did. I kept the rice in a gallon glass jar with a screw-on lid and what I discovered is that the moths and their larvae actually crawl up under the lid, and they're small enough to enter the jar. And my guess is, if they could get in, they can probably get out.

We sealed the jar back up and took it outside and dumped it into a garbage bag, which we put into our garbage bin. We then sterilized the glass jar and the lid and let it soak overnight. I'm hoping the rice actually attracted them all into once place and this move will be our final move in extermination.

Just to be safe, a listener named Buck sent me this tip of a product from Black Flag that attracts the measly bugs and then traps them for disposal. It's one of the better ways to keep them under control.

I hope to do one more update on this very annoying story and I'm hoping the end of the problem is near.