Weevils in flour?

Author
Discussion

CopperBolt

Original Poster:

902 posts

77 months

Wednesday 3rd January 2024
quotequote all
Anyone else get the small brown things living in their flour if its left for a bit long in the cupboard?

I think I need to get airtight jars to store the flour in but I suspect the critters or their eggs are in the flour when you buy it so not sure even that will work.

Any tips?

Thanks

fasimew

417 posts

15 months

Wednesday 3rd January 2024
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I've seen this once. No idea they were called weevils.

normalbloke

7,835 posts

229 months

Wednesday 3rd January 2024
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Reminds me of an old Navy provisions depot on the south coast, that’s now posh housing. But still keep some of the original names, like The Slaughterhouse,Salt Meat Lane,Weevil Lane and Coppersge Green etc.

Discendo Discimus

593 posts

42 months

Wednesday 3rd January 2024
quotequote all
Yep we had these in summer last year, bit of a shock when cooking some pasta!
They had managed to get everywhere, in our flour, cereal, pasta etc. We had to throw everything out and taped up any holes or gaps in our cupboards.
We now keep things like flour in sealed boxes and make sure pasta is always taped firmly shut.

They're fairly harmless when cooked, but the vegetarian Mrs wouldn't allow the extra protein so we went full pest control on them.

CopperBolt

Original Poster:

902 posts

77 months

Wednesday 3rd January 2024
quotequote all
I opened a 4 months past its use by date pack of un-opened flour I had in a cupboard and it was crawling with them.

Two different advice on t'internet
1. clean cuboard out thoroughly using a brush, no wet cloths or anything as that may push food into a corner where it will dry and harbour them

2. clean cupboard out thoroughly then wipe down with wet cloth and bleach.

So not much help there.

Evanivitch

22,706 posts

132 months

Wednesday 3rd January 2024
quotequote all
CopperBolt said:
Anyone else get the small brown things living in their flour if its left for a bit long in the cupboard?

I think I need to get airtight jars to store the flour in but I suspect the critters or their eggs are in the flour when you buy it so not sure even that will work.

Any tips?

Thanks
Yes, they're in the flour. Often a bag lost at bag of a cupboard.

spitfire-ian

3,915 posts

238 months

Wednesday 3rd January 2024
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fasimew said:
I've seen this once. No idea they were called weevils.
They're more than likely flour mites, not weevils.

ooo000ooo

2,601 posts

204 months

Wednesday 3rd January 2024
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My Dad used to work in a large commercial bakery, they regularly found small scorpions in the flour.

FiF

45,994 posts

261 months

Wednesday 3rd January 2024
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Porridge oats suffers the same fate. Flour and oats are foods where we are scrupulous on use by dates. That's as opposed to using common sense / sniff test / other method of choice.

CopperBolt

Original Poster:

902 posts

77 months

Thursday 4th January 2024
quotequote all
spitfire-ian said:
They're more than likely flour mites, not weevils.
https://www.pestdefence.co.uk/news/how-to-get-rid-...
weevils Id say. Mine are easily visible although nowhere near 10mm. Just over 1mm at most.