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By Aubree Roche
University of Georgia
When the garden season is over and all the dried peas, beans, fruit slices and nuts are stored, watch out. Don't let the harvest you've put so much effort into end up with little "worms" in them in the dark recesses of your pantry.
Volume XXXII
Number 1
Page 24
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Indian meal moths (Plodia interpunctella) are insects commonly found in household pantries. They can be a nuisance flying around the house or a pest when you find them in your food.
But don't use pesticides around your food. Use your head instead. Proper sanitation and using proper storage containers will break the life cycle of this moth and should eliminate your problem.
To prevent infestations, store pasta, flour, meal, rice, grains, seeds and other such foods in the freezer or refrigerator. Since the larvae infest dried fruits, store raisins, prunes and dried foods from your garden in insect-proof metal, glass or plastic containers.
Adult Indian meal moths are only three-eighths of an inch long. At rest, they hold their wings tent-like above their bodies. Their most striking feature is the light gray base of the wing and dark reddish, rust-like area that looks like thick bands at the tip of the wings.
The adult female moths lay their eggs on or near a source of food. The eggs are white and usually 0.3 to 0.5 millimeters long. The larvae hatch from the eggs from two days to two weeks after they're laid, depending on the temperature and humidity around them.
The larvae look like little white worms (two-thirds of an inch long at maturity) with black heads, often accompanied by silk or silken tubes. This silk is often found in infested material, with or without the larva.
The pest stage
The larval stage is the "pest" stage. Its function is to eat as much as possible and grow. When it's ready, the larva wanders from the food source, sometimes a great distance, and spins a silk cocoon. Inside this cocoon, the pupa will grow into an adult.
Adults then emerge from the cocoon, mate and lay eggs, and the cycle begins again.
If you do get Indian meal moths in your pantry, the best way to get rid of them is a good cleaning. Remove everything from your storage areas and vacuum, then wash the shelves and floor with soap and water, getting the cracks and corners where pupae and eggs could be.
It takes very little food for these insects to survive, so vacuum behind the appliances and under furniture. Go through all of the products in your pantry and remove any infested material.
Commonly, the moths are brought into the house along with wild birdseed or old pet food. If this is the case, remove them from the kitchen and out to a shed or garage.
Infested material that you don't want to get rid of can also be supercooled or superheated. Place the product in the freezer at zero degrees Fahrenheit for at least seven days, or microwave it for five minutes, or heat it in the oven at 120 to 140 degrees Fahrenheit for two hours.
When you buy new food products for the pantry, carefully inspect the packaging. Pay particular attention to the package seams.
The larvae can't chew through plastic packaging, but they can get in through seams of packaging or holes that other pantry pests may make. The best way to protect your stored food is to keep it in containers made of strong plastic, glass or even metal.
You didn't plant, grow and harvest all those garden foods to let a bunch of moths crash the pantry party.
(Aubree Roche is an entomology graduate student with the University of Georgia College of Agricultural and Environmental Sciences)
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When the garden season is over and all the dried peas, beans, fruit slices and nuts are stored, watch out. Don't let the harvest you've put so much effort into end up with little "worms" in them in the dark recesses of your pantry.
