How to get rid of moths in food? Kitchen pest food moth: appearance, photo, where it lives, what it eats, control and prevention measures How to fight food moth larvae.

Every housewife at least once in her life has encountered the problem of moths appearing in her apartment. A small, inconspicuous butterfly flies around the house and causes a lot of concern, because this means that eggs have already been laid somewhere, from which voracious larvae will hatch. It threatens to damage clothing and furnishings, but moths in the kitchen are a separate and very serious conversation, since our food is endangered, and therefore ourselves.

What is food moth

Entomologists distinguish several types of moths that annoy people in the kitchen. Most often these are nut, cereal, cocoa, Indian, mill and barn moths - butterflies of the order Lepidoptera that prefer a nocturnal lifestyle.

Appearance of food moth

To a non-specialist, pests of all these species look similar - a moth no more than 1 cm in length with grayish-brown wings, from which scales easily fall off. Insects whose larvae feed on food products are commonly grouped into general concept"food moth". Fighting methods also do not differ by type. Most often, groceries are attacked by pests - cereals, sugar, dried fruits, cereals included in ready-made breakfasts, flour and flour products, pasta, baby food, tea, coffee and nuts and seeds.

Life cycle of an insect

The moth lives no more than two months. But if conditions are unfavorable, due to developmental delays, this period can increase to 300 days. At temperatures from +25 °C and humidity from 50%, it multiplies quickly, laying eggs in hard to reach places and close to food.

One individual produces from 100 to 400 eggs, from which the main pests hatch - caterpillar larvae. In favorable conditions of a residential kitchen, they actively develop, feeding on food, and within a few weeks they grow to a size of 14–16 mm. The larvae are light in color and look like worms with five pairs of legs. They are the ones who harm products by clogging them and eating within reach. With a high degree of infection, it is impossible not to notice them: they create a web around themselves, from which cocoons are later formed.

The food moth spends 1–2 weeks to a month in the cocoon state, gradually turning into an adult insect. After hatching, she flies out to mate, which can occur as early as the next day. The fertilized females then look for a place in the feeding environment to lay their eggs. The lifespan of an adult insect does not exceed two weeks, and during this time the butterfly does not feed, but only drinks water. Underdeveloped digestive system prevents her from absorbing food.

How harmful is food moth?

Although the main kitchen pest is moth larvae, the insect is capable of causing damage at every stage of its development:

• eggs contaminate food, rendering it unusable;
  If food moth eggs get into food, they should not be eaten.
• larvae eat reserves, spoil them with cobwebs, excrement and dead shells;
  Products contaminated with food moth larvae pose a health hazard
• moths fly randomly around the kitchen, getting into liquid food, which can cause infection;
  A moth accidentally flying into food causes no less trouble than a fly.
• dead insects litter the room and give it an unattractive appearance.
  Dead insects make your home feel neglected

By accidentally eating food contaminated with larvae and replacement cocoons, you can cause an allergic reaction or get serious food poisoning, fraught with intoxication and further problems with the immune system.

If food moths are found in industrial food products, they are removed from sale. On own kitchen the fight begins when the first traces of the pest are detected.

Signs and causes of food moths

You can assume the presence of insects in kitchen supplies in the following cases:

If the infection has just begun, the larvae are difficult to notice. Therefore, inspect small groceries very carefully, and check larger ones for the presence of nests.

Why does a pest start?

To successfully fight moths, you need to know how they get into the apartment and infect food areas. There are three ways:

1. With purchased products already contaminated with pest larvae or eggs.
2. From neighbors (usually through ventilation, like most pests).
3. Through loosely closed doors and windows of the apartment.

The appearance of food moths does not mean that the housewife is not maintaining the premises properly. Insects come from outside and infest even the cleanest kitchen.

Difference between food moth and clothes moth

All small butterflies appear similar. But since the methods of controlling pests of products and fabrics differ, it is worth taking into account a number of differences that will help determine what type of moth you encountered.

How to get rid of food moths at home

Methods of struggle can be divided into the following categories:

• mechanical (aimed at mechanically clearing the area of ​​the pest);
• chemical (insecticidal);
• folk (without the use of chemicals).

Combining them is allowed.

Mechanical impact

The pest must be combated at all stages of development, otherwise the methods will not bring the desired result. If you destroy only the larvae, the remaining adult insects will lay new eggs and you will have to start over.

Cleaning

This is the simplest and effective method. Go through the food in the kitchen and identify the source of infection based on the signs described in detail above.

It is better to get rid of contaminated products immediately. But if more than two-thirds of the cereal is in good condition, you can try to save them by disinfecting them by calcining them in the oven at a temperature of +60 °C or place in the freezer for 1-2 days.

Isolate products that moths have not reached by pouring them into dry, clean containers with a tight-fitting lid. You can store them in the refrigerator. Rinse shelves and cabinets where the source of food moths could be located thoroughly with a solution of laundry soap.

Traps

Traps can be bought in stores. Despite the large selection, they have the same operating principle - mechanical destruction of insects. They usually include an adhesive base and a pheromone lure. The sticky layer is applied to cardboard or thick paper, and the bait is already included in the glue or included in a separate bag.

This method of mechanical action is safe because the traps do not contain toxins or toxic substances. But it does not affect eggs and larvae: pheromones are designed to attract adults.

When using glue traps, do not overdo the quantity. If there are too many pheromones, insects will not fly to any trap.

It is distinguished by the absence of attracting pheromones and its shape. It is rarely produced specifically for food moths, so you can use any type designed to protect against flying insects. Food moths fly chaotically, so this type of trap gives good results in the fight against adult moths, but will not protect against larvae and eggs.

Chemicals

Modern industrial products to destroy food moths they are divided into two groups:

1. Insecticides, most of which are based on the toxicity of the drug.
2. Repellents - less hazardous substances with a base of plant origin.

When used indoors, especially in the kitchen, chemicals Controlling food moths requires caution and compliance with safety measures.

Insecticides

One of the most popular forms is aerosols. TO positive aspects their uses include:

• spectrum of influence - they destroy both adult butterflies and their caterpillar larvae;
• duration of exposure - up to a year, depending on the chosen product;
• efficiency - give instant effect;
• wide choice - you can choose a product that is better suited than others in each specific case.

Although there are also disadvantages:

• unsafe - manufacturers recommend not allowing the substance to come into contact with food, and when using it, use protective equipment - gloves and a bandage or a respirator;
• difficulty in application: since the products cannot be processed directly, without mechanical destruction maggots already in the grocery store are indispensable.

The principle of operation of fumigators is similar to the operation of aerosols - insecticides are released into the air, destroying food moths.

• But unlike aerosols, they release the insecticide constantly and in much lower concentrations. Therefore, they cannot be used constantly, but can only be turned on for 8 hours and the window opened. Their advantages:
• relative safety;

wide range of effects: destruction of caterpillars and adult insects.

• Disadvantages to use:
• localization - they operate from the mains, their installation location is limited by the presence of an outlet;
• effectiveness - the product shows good results in destroying butterflies and their caterpillars, but additional measures are needed to completely destroy the larvae;

Repellents

Many housewives prefer a repellent product in the form of a moth section. Its advantages:

• safety is at the core essential oils;
• nice smell;
• Unlike glue traps and fumigators, the moth section is not too noticeable and looks neat.

Among the disadvantages it is worth considering:

• dubious effectiveness: aromas have a repellent effect on adult butterflies, but they are ineffective against larvae;
• fragility in the fight against the population: larvae adjacent to the product can produce butterflies that are resistant to a specific aroma.

Tablets against food moths work in the same way. They are usually sold in small packages and used according to instructions. It is best to wrap them in porous cloth (gauze or bandage) and place them on kitchen shelves. Positive and negative sides the uses are the same as for sections, but the cost of tablets is usually lower.

Folk remedies

All time-tested recipes for fighting food moths are based on repelling the pest. Moths cannot tolerate strong odors and are unable to lay eggs in places where there are noticeable aromas.

Most industrial repellents are based on the use of folk recipes.

To get rid of food moths, it is enough to create conditions unsuitable for breeding. And they will help with this:

1. Essential oils. A few drops of this pleasant product, applied to a cotton pad or piece of cloth, is enough to repel the pest from the shelves of the kitchen cabinet.
   One of the most pleasant remedies in the fight against food moths is an essential oil with your favorite aroma
2. Soap with a strong smell. Toilet is more pleasant, and housekeeping is more efficient. The bars are laid out in places where the insect is expected to appear, creating a fragrant curtain.
   The smell of soap will prevent food moths from approaching food and laying eggs.
3. Dried herbs. Llavender, tansy, mint, wormwood and other plants with similar aromas are sewn into small bags or simply wrapped in a porous cloth or napkin so as not to accidentally litter the shelves.
   If you collect herbs to repel food moths yourself, it is better to do this at the time of their flowering
4. Citrus peels. The peels are placed in cabinets. Both dried zest and fresh product are suitable. You just need to change it in time and make sure that the fresh peels do not spoil.
   It is worth considering that if the crust begins to deteriorate, its smell will attract rather than repel moths
5. Indoor aromatic plants: geranium and fragrant tobacco. One beautiful flower on the kitchen window sill is enough to prevent moths from flying close to the room.
   Ordinary geranium will reliably protect the kitchen from the invasion of food moths
6. Herbs and spices. Open the lid slightly or slightly cut the packaging so that pleasant odors can spread freely throughout the kitchen cabinet.
   Spicy and pungent odors will keep food moths away from kitchen cabinets
7. Camphor and vinegar. Both products cannot boast of being pleasant to use, but they have been proven effective for a long time. Camphor is used in the same way as essential oils: a few drops on a cotton pad. Vinegar is added to water when cleaning the kitchen.

When choosing folk remedies, keep in mind that neither mothballs nor garlic have stood the test of time. Naphthalene is recognized as dangerous due to the carcinogenic substances in its composition, and most insects have become addicted to garlic.

Preventive measures

When getting rid of food moths, it is important to warn reinfection kitchens.

1. Before putting food into containers, check each one for food moth infestation.
   It is better to purchase groceries in factory packaging rather than prepackaged in a store
2. If possible, avoid long-term storage of groceries. If you buy food for your family, then for no more than a week, the risk of infection with food moths will be significantly reduced.
   It is better to buy more product than to throw away old supplies due to food moth infestation
3. Use pleasant and harmless aromatic products. For prevention, a very small amount will be required.
   Home remedy you can do it yourself against moths
4. Store food in airtight containers. Even if you accidentally miss a larva, it will not be able to get out of the container and infect neighboring ones. Migratory adults will not have the opportunity to lay eggs.
   Hermetically sealed products are not at risk of contamination by food moths
5. Monitor the condition of windows, doors and ventilation holes. Regular mosquito net will protect the house not only from accidental penetration of moths, but also from many other household pests.

The name “food moth” is popularly understood to mean several types of moths - small butterflies whose caterpillars feed on cereals, nuts and groceries. Each of these species has its own characteristics, however, despite the fact that outwardly different types of food moths differ well from each other, no one particularly wants to understand them and is simply looking for ways to get rid of these pests as quickly as possible.

At the same time, there are no easy and universal instructions on how to do this - due to the specific feeding habits of these butterflies, conventional methods such as aerosol insecticides are not suitable (after all, the poison can get into food). Therefore, the fight against food moths is always quite a troublesome and resource-intensive undertaking.

This is interesting

Before the development of human civilization, all types of moths were fairly inconspicuous participants in natural biocenoses, and their caterpillars fed on the seeds of grasses and trees. But with the advent of granaries, barns and warehouses, and especially with the beginning of active transportation of goods between countries and continents, food moths quickly spread throughout the world and became a real cosmopolitan, equally effectively infecting grain in Argentina, China and Chad. And today, even industrial methods of combating food moths do not always cope with their destructive activities.

Types of food moths and features of their morphology

If you look at the photo different types food moths, one may be surprised how they are generally confused and combined under one name. For example, in the photo below there is a flour moth, one of the most common types of food moths in an apartment:

And here is the southern barn moth, which has a beautiful pattern on its wings. Getting it out is often the hardest thing to do:

And in the photo below you can see what the cocoa moth looks like - a common food moth, which can easily be confused with a clothes moth due to the inconspicuous light yellow color of the wings:

But in general, any food moth looks inconspicuous, even despite the pattern on the wings of some of its species. All of them are butterflies of discreet colors and small sizes.

Usually the length of their wings does not exceed 7-8 mm, and when sitting on the surface, the insect folds them and becomes like a small protrusion on the surface. It is not surprising that the simple glance of a city apartment resident is usually not able to discern the difference in the color of these butterflies.

On a note

For an unprepared resident big city food and clothing moths are very similar. The easiest way to distinguish them is by their meeting places - clothing moths rarely catch your eye in the kitchen, while food moths, on the contrary, do not favor wardrobes and bedrooms with their attention.

But the larvae of food moths all look the same. These are small (up to one and a half centimeters) white-yellow or white-pink caterpillars without any hair or outgrowths on the body. It is usually impossible to determine whether a caterpillar belongs to a particular moth by its appearance. Fortunately, they can all be hatched using the same methods, and it is not necessary to determine the species of the larvae for this.

For example, in the photo below is a larva of the meal moth:

And in the next picture is a cocoa moth larva. Even despite the obvious differences in the color of adult butterflies, their larvae are very similar:

On a note

Food moth larvae lead a secretive and sedentary lifestyle. They are usually encountered either in contaminated products or when crawling out of cabinets to pupate. In this case, they move along the walls and greatly attract attention. The photo shows an adult food moth larva ready to pupate.

Food moth: a little biology

Food moth is a pest with a fairly short reproduction cycle. At suitable temperature and humidity, it takes about two months, and sometimes six weeks, from egg to egg.

The optimal conditions for the development of food moth butterflies are a temperature of about 25°C and a humidity of about 50%. At these air parameters, they develop most quickly, and it turns out to be very difficult to remove them.

Adult food moth butterflies do not feed at all: their oral apparatus is not developed and the digestive system does not function.

And they don’t live very long - about a week, mating literally on the first or second day after emerging from the pupa. The females devote the remaining few days to laying a hundred to one and a half eggs where future offspring will find enough food, and the males look for other females or die.

In general, taking into account the larval stage, the food moth lives for about a month and a half. Of these, a week or two is spent on metamorphosis in the pupal stage.

Almost always, food moths reproduce in the same place where their larvae live. Only in some cases do adult insects mate away from the grocery store, and the females then return to the feeding environment.

Pest in an apartment: how does it get here, where does it live and what does it eat?

Food moth larvae are especially numerous in grain warehouses, which can cause significant damage. Each species has its own food preferences, but in general the range of food products for each moth is wide. In an apartment, any type of food moth feeds on almost any grocery product.

Thus, wherever there is dry food, food moths can appear.

The photo shows dry apricots, among which the larvae of food moths are visible. In case of mass infection large volumes It can be extremely difficult to remove moths from such a product:

Each food moth larva not only eats the product in which it lives, but also constantly weaves itself into a cocoon of silk. This is how “incomprehensible” lumps and pellets appear in cereals or flour, and neat nests with a worm inside appear in nuts.

It is important to understand that food moths are very poor fliers. It cannot spread between houses, and even more so between food warehouses and apartments, and in an apartment the food moth is taken only with purchases and products from the supermarket. Food moths also breed in industrial warehouses: their larvae are transported in grain from one warehouse to another, and their descendants already master the abundant food sources.

Harm from food moths

The main harm of food moths is food spoilage. Moth-infested groceries are no longer edible, and in industrial warehouses, contaminated food is unsuitable for sale.

If there is a serious infestation in a warehouse, food moths are dangerous big losses product and a strong decrease in its quality.

On a note

It is moth-infested and secondary purified products that enter the market at bargain prices - after all, they need to be sold somehow. And by buying them, an ordinary city resident risks bringing a pest into his home with them.

Food moths do not eat clothes and are not dangerous to the wardrobe. This, however, does not mean that if there are food moths in the room, you should not worry about things: clothes moths and food moths do not interfere with each other and can easily coexist in the same apartment, while mainly food moths will be seen. In any case, you need to remove the moth from the first signs of its detection in the house.

Fighting food moths: measures and means

It is necessary at all stages of its development. It is incorrect to say that if only the larvae are harmful, then only them need to be destroyed: each flying female moth lays up to 160 eggs in different places, from which new caterpillars will hatch within a week.

Therefore, it is necessary to destroy food moths in a comprehensive manner:

A good tool for catching butterflies is the Aeroxon food moth trap. It attracts butterflies with its smell, and its adhesive surface does not dry out for a long time. You can buy such a food moth trap online or at some hardware stores. Its cost is about 200 rubles:

More simple methods control of food moths has not yet been developed. On industrial enterprises against moths, phosphine-based fumigators and grain spraying with contact insecticides are used. Carry out similar processing food products indoors is not allowed.

Measures to protect your home from food moth infestation

Knowing how to kill food moths is useful, but not enough to protect the premises from the pest. It is much wiser not to let him into the house at all, taking several steps to prevent infestation of the apartment with food moths. Among these measures:

• thorough check of all products upon purchase
• avoidance of grocery products with obviously low prices
• purchasing food that will be eaten within one week
• use of moth repellents.

To comply with the last point, it is useful to know. Among the substances that repel her are strong-smelling herbs (wormwood, tansy, lavender, rosemary), essential oils, fresh orange peels, laundry and strawberry soap, vinegar, horse chestnut cones.

Surely, any housewife knows who the food moth is. This small insect, slightly less than a centimeter long, light beige colour, with wings covered with pollen.

The adult is quite resourceful and is able to crawl into even the smallest crevices. Reaching the most secluded corners, she lays larvae. The main pest is the larvae, because they eat products of plant origin, so they are often found in cereals.

The lifespan of this insect is no more than three weeks, but during this time it is capable of laying more than two hundred larvae. The color of the caterpillar varies from milky white to beige, giving off a yellowish tint. The head is dark brown or black at the base. The main difficulty in removing these pests is that they are quite prolific.
Food moths are especially active at night, so it is in the evening hours that it is possible to encounter them. However, having an inconspicuous color, plus a rather small size, the moth can easily hide from human eyes.

Food moth photo

What a food moth looks like can be seen in the photo.

Where do food moths come from?

When coming from a store or market, it is possible to bring moths into the house along with food. Since in warehouses, before packaging, a couple of larvae may get into the bags.
And it is not always possible to find out where food moths come from. Since it is difficult to track in what conditions the products were stored before they were sold to you, what is the situation with moths in warehouses, and how do the authorities that inspect and control the quality of products work.
You can carefully check the products you buy and monitor the cleanliness kitchen cabinets.

What foods contain food moths?

Most often, larvae can be found in dry foods, cereals, pasta, peas, beans, nuts and dried fruits. In addition to feeding on your supplies, caterpillars also leave waste products behind, making the food they were found in unsuitable for food. The larvae leave behind cobwebs, scales, feces and other unpleasant things.

Food moths can spoil seeds for sowing by simply gnawing out the embryo. It can also grow in candies, seasonings, tea and crackers.
A remarkable fact. If a moth starts in a bag of grain, it can envelop a layer up to 10 centimeters deep with its web. In this case, the grains lose their nutritional value and are completely unsuitable for food.
Therefore, answering the question of which products contain food moths, it is only possible to highlight a large list, which you may consider incomplete. Since moths will start or not depends on the conditions under which you store your supplies.

Food moth, how to get rid of it

If possible, heat what is beyond doubt in the microwave or oven (applies to cereals), and then store it in a container with a tight lid.

For cabinets in which contaminated products were stored, wipe the walls with a rag pre-soaked in acetic acid. Clean up and ventilate your cabinets.

Food moth, how to get rid of it using folk remedies

Any woman who has encountered this problem can tell you how to get rid of this insect using folk remedies. Since it is clear that when dealing with food, people try to avoid the use of aerosols due to the risk of poisoning.
Taking into account that moths do not like the smell of lavender, you can place special bags in cabinets; this will scare off adult moths, so they will not be able to lay eggs there. Mint and wormwood have similar effects.

Do not forget about measures that will help you not to miss the fact of the appearance of insects. And to prevent moths from multiplying, store cereals in tightly closed jars. Conduct general cleaning cabinets or rooms in which food is stored.

Moths (flour, cocoa, fruit and others). These small brown-beige insects They happily settle in food warehouses, shops and other places where groceries are collected.

They are also attracted by the extensive food supplies in the apartments. Adult insects are not dangerous, life cycle butterflies are very short. And here caterpillars live longer (up to one and a half weeks) and are amazingly voracious.

It is they who cause the main harm to products, not only by eating them, but also by leaving excrement, skin particles and other inclusions harmful to human health.

Caterpillars are whitish, with dark spots on the head. Insects prefer secluded dark corners; you can find them by sorting through food supplies.

Where to look for pests?

Food moth and its larvae live in places where food products are concentrated: pantries, cupboards, chests. eat a variety of foods: cereals, whole and crushed grains, flour, pasta, dried fruits, cookies, crackers, cereals, sugar, cocoa, tea, bread, various spices.

There is a clear preference for dry products. Insects easily penetrate into any unsealed packaging, from cardboard boxes to plastic bags.

You can spot pests by sorting through your groceries. In boxes and jars of food, naked white caterpillars, small nests with worms, and silky threads of cocoons resembling a cobweb are found.

ADVICE! If you find foreign inclusions in one of the products, you need to review all the packages nearby. Most likely, pests will be found there too.

Moth larvae and eggs enter the house along with contaminated products. A weak insect cannot fly into an apartment from the street. Once a butterfly enters the house, it begins to multiply quickly.

Features of wrestling

Clothes moths can be killed using toxic repellents and other potent agents. It’s more difficult with food pests. It is forbidden to treat cereals and flour with pesticides, it is also undesirable to use food moth repellent near kitchen surfaces, dishes and household heating appliances.

This is why universal preparations for indoor moths, skin beetles and other pests are not suitable. Then how to deal with kitchen moths?

In shops you need to look for products designed to destroy food pests specifically.

How to get rid of food moths in the kitchen?

The most important thing is to get rid of the emerging larvae in time. First, the affected products are sorted out. If too many pests are found in grocery bags, it is better to destroy the affected cereals or flour. The remaining products are poured into clean containers.

The interior of cabinets, shelves and doors are treated with non-toxic preparations from food moths. These can be aerosols or gels, diluted in the proportion indicated on the package. Instead of ready-made repellents You can use an aqueous bite solution. It is used to coat the grooves of drawers, door hinges and other secluded places.

Placed next to product packaging special traps for food moths that attract insects.

The most common and effective option – Aeroxon traps. They contain non-toxic, pest-killing substances and are not dangerous for food, children or pets.

Adult butterflies can be destroyed using adhesive fly tape. It is placed inside cabinets and hung next to them. This simple measure will help prevent the appearance of new insects.

Preventive measures

Having destroyed an existing moth, it is important to do everything to prevent it from appearing in the apartment again.

Do not buy bulk products in markets and dubious retail outlets, especially if they are sold suspiciously cheap. There is a high risk of purchasing contaminated and unedible cereals, flour or nuts. Give preference to products in sealed packaging with a normal expiration date.

Don't stockpile strategic foodstuffs. The more cereals and pasta in the pantry, the more favorable conditions are created for moths. It is better to pour the products into containers with tight-fitting lids.

Freshly purchased bags of cereal or nuts can be placed in the freezer for 6-10 hours. Freezing kills existing insects. After the procedure, the cereal must be sorted and poured into clean, dry containers.

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

• This means that in order to eliminate pests forever, you need to deal with them comprehensively - find and eliminate the source, clean the furniture/ceiling, throw away everything that was infected and process potentially infected products.

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

• Tiny, almost invisible eggs end up in the kitchen in packages of cereals, cereals, biscuits, dried fruits, flour, spices and other groceries. Then, within a week, they hatch into food moth larvae, which subsequently pupate and turn into moths.

In this material you will find step by step instructions about how to get rid of food moths, what preventive measures to take to avoid them reappearance and how to save food if you hate to throw it away.

Step 1. Looking for the outbreak and contaminated products

Moth eggs look like small white clumped grains, similar to semolina. The larvae first 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, as in the photo below.

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

1. Inspection of kitchen cabinets and products. Inspect all supplies stored in kitchen cabinets - you need to find not only the source, but also products already contaminated with larvae and eggs.

• Don’t forget to check unpacked groceries as well, because moths easily eat through cardboard, foil and polyethylene.
• Pay special attention to the edges of the lids of the jars - there may be moth cobwebs on them.
• Remember that not only groceries can be contaminated, but also animal feed, bird seeds, fishing bait, that is, almost everything that is not stored in the refrigerator.

1. Inspection of the ceiling.
2. The ceiling, ceiling skirting boards, the edges of the wallpaper and the base of the chandelier. Moths love to hide in dark crevices and corners. Inspect cabinet tops.

Here you can also see moth cocoons.

By the way, if you doubt whether there are moths in your kitchen at all or, say, whether you managed to get them out after cleaning, then inspect the room at night - adult moths will gather around a burning chandelier.

1. Step 2. We carry out a total cleanup Eliminate the source and products from clear signs infection. Once you find which product has become a source of insect spread, wrap it tightly in plastic bag
2. and throw it away immediately, or better yet, burn it completely. Clean thoroughly. Empty kitchen cabinets and remove the shelves, and then vacuum them and the inside walls of the cabinet, Special attention

• paying attention to corners and crevices. A vacuum cleaner (without an attachment or with a small attachment) will attract hidden moths and prevent unnoticeable eggs from remaining in the closet. This method is very effective, so if you don’t have a vacuum cleaner, you should ask your friends for one. The main thing after the procedure is to throw away the bag or freeze it in freezer

1. for 3-4 days.
2. Wash all containers and jars. This can be done with a vinegar solution or laundry soap. The container containing the contaminated food 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 peeling wallpaper, then vacuum these places as well.

How to catch adult individuals that have already scattered into the corners of cabinets and kitchens? Males (by the way, harmless, but fertilizing females) can be caught using a glue trap (photo below). The principle of its operation is simple - a trap treated with female pheromone attracts males and “catches” them, and without males, the moth, of course, will not be able to reproduce. Thus, pheromone traps will help prevent the reappearance of insects.

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

Females will have to be killed using traditional methods - a fly swatter or a rolled-up newspaper, since they fly poorly and slowly, this is not so difficult to do.

Step 4. Process potentially contaminated products

So, you've thrown out the source product and items that show obvious signs of contamination, but what about the rest of the supplies that appear clean on the outside or were only slightly contaminated?

The easiest way is to throw them away, but if you wish, you can save potentially contaminated food in the following two ways:

• Having previously sifted and sorted out the cereal, flour or other product, keep it in the freezer or on the balcony (in winter time) at least 3-4 days.
• After pouring the product onto a baking sheet, heat it in the oven at 60 degrees for at least 40 minutes. Before warming it up, of course, you need to clean it.

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

Step 5. We carry out prevention and protect products

1. New or cold/heat processed foods (including pet food) should be placed in glass, thick plastic or metal containers/jars with tight-fitting lids. This will protect supplies from penetration by moths and prevent them from escaping outside the container. Let us remind you that cardboard, paper, foil and cellophane bags are easily eaten by it.

1. In the fight against moths in the kitchen it will also be useful folk recipe– storage of products with natural repellents:

• With a couple of bay leaves;
• With peeled but not cut garlic (a couple of heads is enough);
• With orange peels.

1. You can also place some of the following on the shelves, either: sprigs of lavender, leaves of birch, geranium, wormwood, rosemary, laundry soap or strong-smelling essential oils. For example, fir oil is suitable, which you can moisten a cotton pad with and leave it in the closet.

Remember that these folk remedies They will repel adult moths, preventing them from laying eggs in products and on shelves, but they will not affect the larvae. Moreover, if you suddenly place a package of contaminated cereal 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 combat domestic pests comprehensively.

And a little more about prevention

The following tips will help you avoid the recurrence of moths:

• Try not to let food sit for more than 2-4 months and, of course, do not store supplies that have passed their expiration date.
• Store foods you rarely use in the refrigerator.
• Buy dry foods in small quantities so you can eat them within a couple of months.
• Buy groceries only from famous manufacturers and, if possible, check the quality of goods in the store. To be sure, freeze freshly purchased cereals, cereals, flour, nuts, dried fruits and other products for 3-4 days (in dry form).
• Animal food, such as bird seeds or fishing bait, should not be stored in the kitchen.