How can I get rid of food moths in the kitchen and apartment? How to get rid of food moth? Food moth like.

Moths in the kitchen can ruin all groceries: they penetrate cereals, flour, seasonings, and products infected with larvae become unfit for human consumption. You should get rid of the pest before it multiplies.

Food moth - what is it, causes

Food moth is not a specific type of insect, but common name for several: flour, granary and what fire. Outwardly, they are small butterflies of gray, light or brown color.

Where does the moth come from: pests can get into the kitchen along with the packaging of products contaminated with insect eggs. The latter are very small, and it is almost impossible to notice them. Within a short time, larvae hatch from them, and then adults appear. It is difficult to bring out a food moth, because the butterfly for its short life lays many eggs, which are not easy to find. It is necessary to destroy not only adult insects, but also their eggs, larvae and pupae.

We are looking for the source of infection, signs of infection

Before you get rid of food moths in the kitchen, you need to carefully examine all the stocks. Insect eggs are very small, round, white color. You will have to sort through all the groceries, pour cereals into another container, throw away the one that is infected. If the products are covered with cobwebs, then they also need to be disposed of.

Important! Everything should be inspected, even sealed packages and boxes: insects can get inside, damaging foil, polyethylene, cellophane, cardboard.

Pests settle not only in products, they can hide in any nooks and crannies of the kitchen: the gaps between the furniture and the wall, on the back walls of the headset, in cabinets, under baseboards, in the chandelier.

How to get rid

The mole that appears in the kitchen is removed using an integrated approach. It is not enough to destroy only adults - most likely, they have already managed to lay a lot of eggs, and soon new pests will hatch from them. The insect control process consists of inspecting food and culling those with larvae or eggs, thoroughly washing the entire kitchen, and eliminating butterflies.

To remove moths in the kitchen, you need to remember that:

1. The pest tolerates relatively low temperatures. If you put a bag with grits infected with larvae in refrigerator compartment, insects will hibernate, but quickly return to life after heating to room temperature.
2. Temperatures from +60 to -10-15 are fatal for butterflies and their eggs. Moreover, the freezing should last at least several days, and warming up - at least half an hour.
3. Insects are not afraid of all cleaning products - they are able to settle even in a box with washing powder. Laundry soap and vinegar solution have a detrimental effect on the pest. The use of other compounds does not give full guarantee moth destruction.

The kitchen should be processed only after the removal of contaminated products in the trash. If you leave at least 1 bag of cereal, which contains butterfly eggs, through short term the insects will multiply rapidly again.

Folk remedies

To combat moths, various improvised means are used. Insects do not tolerate some pungent odors, and this feature is used to bring out the pest.

Vinegar

Wipe all the cabinets in which groceries are stored with a solution of vinegar and do not rinse. The strong smell will repel insects.

Garlic

Another proven remedy is garlic. The kitchen moth also does not tolerate its smell. Cloves can be laid out on shelves and even placed in containers with cereals. Contact with the vegetable will not harm the products themselves.

Bay leaf

This type of seasoning acts repulsively on adults. The leaves are laid out in lockers and in jars with cereals, flour and other products of interest to the pest.

scented pouch

You can make sachets by filling fabric bags with odorous compounds. Against food moths, dried wormwood, tansy, basil or cloves are taken as a filler.

Lavender

Some essential oils - lavender, geranium, rosemary and others - are dripped onto a cotton pad and then laid out on the shelves of kitchen cabinets. For humans and products, these odors are harmless, and moths cannot stand them.

Burnt honey

Put a little natural honey in the pan, put on fire and wait until it turns brown. They open all the windows, carry dishes throughout the apartment, carefully going around each room around the perimeter in order to spread the smell.

Other options

Less commonly used:

1. Leaves walnut. If suddenly at hand is fresh leaves of this tree, you can decompose them in the same way as laurel.
2. Camphor oil. They impregnate a cotton pad with it and place it next to containers with cereals.
3. Cigarettes. Nicotine also repels harmful insects, and can be laid out in cigarette cabinets.

The listed means, although effective, are not advisable to use: food can be saturated with the smell of camphor or nicotine. It is better to use ordinary garlic or laurel - they are harmless, easily accessible, and all these products bring the same result.

Special funds

If you need to quickly get rid of the pest, then you can use special means from food moths. They are issued in different forms: powders, aerosols and traps.

The most effective drugs:

1. "Moskitol". Effective against eggs, larvae, pupae and adult insects. The spray is sprayed on kitchen surfaces, avoiding contact with food and protecting the respiratory system with a respirator. After that, the window is opened and aired for at least 30 minutes.
2. "Raptor". Glue trap, effective only against adult insects. Installed inside the kitchen cabinet, periodically changed to a new one.
3. Bros. An aerosol that destroys a pest in a few seconds. The room is treated with a respirator, then the kitchen is thoroughly ventilated, the face and hands are washed, and all surfaces that have been sprayed with insecticide are wiped.
4. Pitetrum. Natural non-toxic powder, from which an aqueous solution is prepared and sprayed onto kitchen furniture. Then ventilate the room.

Sprays are the most effective - they destroy not only adults, but also eggs with larvae. Traps are less toxic, they can be safely left in the cabinet next to the products, but it makes sense to use them only after thoroughly cleaning the entire room and washing the containers.

Processing of contaminated products

Food in which larvae were found should be discarded immediately. It is undesirable to eat it even after heat treatment. If after the revision there are cereals in which eggs and larvae were not visible, they must be processed in order to destroy possible pests that have remained unnoticed.

How to deal with food moth larvae in products:

1. Ignite. Pour cereals, herbs or other product onto a baking sheet, put in an oven preheated to 60 ° C. Keep at least 40 minutes.
2. Freeze. The flour must be sifted, the grain sorted out, poured into a clean container and placed for several days in freezer.

Important! Use chemicals for cleaning products should not be. They may contain toxins that can cause poisoning.

Fight against larvae

Since it is impossible to completely get rid of moths in the kitchen without destroying the eggs and larvae, you should especially carefully approach the fight against the latter. It is necessary to immediately throw away contaminated products, and then vacate the room to the maximum. All surfaces, especially hard-to-reach areas, should be thoroughly vacuumed to collect eggs and larvae.

The next thing to do if a mole is wound up is to prepare a soap or vinegar solution. Wetting a rag in liquid, wipe all surfaces: internal, external and back walls of furniture, a plinth, a chandelier. You need to act methodically, without missing a single section.

After that, all containers for storing bulk products are washed: they are wiped with soapy laundry soap sponge and rinse thoroughly. Containers that contained larvae or cobwebs should be placed in the microwave and turned on for a few minutes at maximum power.

Food prevention and protection

In order not to have to face unpleasant insects again, you need to follow a few rules:

1. Purchase products only from trusted manufacturers. Carefully inspect each package of cereals and flour. If it is not tight, choose another one. Examine the contents of transparent packages - any lumps or extraneous inclusions should be the reason for refusing to purchase.
2. The groceries brought from the store can first be placed in the freezer for a couple of hours, and then poured into a tin or glass jar with sealed lid. Store cereals and flour in paper or plastic bags it’s not worth it - moths can easily gnaw through these materials.
3. Maintain cleanliness in the kitchen, periodically sort out products, throwing out those that have expired.

Food moth multiplies rapidly and spoils food, so it should be dealt with immediately after detection. It is necessary to process not only products, but also all kitchen surfaces in order to destroy the larvae and eggs of the pest.

Food moth scares many housewives. At least once in her life, every lady has encountered unpleasant insects, in bewilderment trying to understand where the flying moths came from in the kitchen. Initially, it is necessary to find a source of reproduction of insects, then blunt to the destruction of uninvited "guests".

The process of getting rid of food moths is unpleasant, lengthy and costly. Be sure to study the rules for preventing the appearance of insects in your home, because preventing food contamination is much easier than trying to get rid of larvae, adults later.

What is food moth

The insect is a pest with a short reproduction cycle. The food or grain moth belongs to the butterfly family. Adults are beige, sometimes light brown. There are also caterpillar-like larvae, the eggs are light. Larvae, depending on the type of insect, differ in size, sometimes reaching a length of two centimeters. It is this form of pest that is considered the most harmful to humans. The larvae devour food, envelop nuts, fruits and cereals with an unpleasant cobweb.

The maximum lifespan of an adult (butterfly) does not exceed a few days, then the insect lays eggs and dies. During the breeding season, the pest turns into a wingless butterfly, when it destroys a lot of food stocks. This period can last up to six days. The process of reproduction of grain moth is accelerated if environment warm and humid. Therefore, the absence of flying moths is not a reason for calm. At this point, the larvae can safely feast on your supplies.

Note! The most important thing in the fight against insects in the kitchen is to periodically check all containers with dry foods, and not just get rid of the pest once.

These questions are of concern to many housewives, because many believe that they themselves are to blame for the contamination of products with insects. You can't think like that, you can only take care of your kitchen, but you can't watch other people. Often, goods bought in a store (especially for a promotion) are already infected with moth larvae. Unscrupulous owners of wholesale depots neglect the rules for storing products. Insects also make their way into the dwelling through ventilation, through windows.

Favorite places for food moths:

• cereals. Favorite place grain moth habitats: rice, oatmeal, oatmeal, pasta, even portioned bags of cereals are not immune from pest infestation;
• nuts. The moth lives in peeled peanuts, under the shells of walnuts;
• dried fruits. Raisins, prunes, dried apricots are often covered with some kind of mold, due to the enveloping of the product with moths;
• carton boxes. Sometimes the larvae are found in unpacked packs of tea, corn flakes, oatmeal;
• if insects have been living in your kitchen for a long time, then perhaps they live under window sills, behind cabinets, there are rare cases of grain moths living even in household appliances, which has not been used for a long time;
• there is an opinion that insects are afraid of garlic, but some claim that they found larvae even in bags with vegetables;
• there are foods that the moth does not eat, but lives well in them (salt, soda). When revising the kitchen, pay attention to these bulk.

Caustic (vinegar) and viscous (honey, wait, jam) are not susceptible to infection, because insects simply drown in them.

It is impossible to panic when a pest is found, get together and immediately begin to destroy the grain moth.

Harm and danger

Many believe that the insect is absolutely harmless to humans, it's okay if it eats a couple of grains. It is strictly forbidden to believe so. The main problem of the grain moth is that an adult can lay about 500 eggs. Each larva changes its skin several times during a short life, infects food with its vital activity. In cereals, nuts there are many feces, chitinous cover (insect skin).

Regular consumption of contaminated foods, sometimes even one meal, can lead to sad consequences:

• food poisoning, serious intoxication of the whole organism;
• severe allergic reaction, up to Quincke's edema, which sometimes leads to death;
• malfunctions of the immune system.

All doctors and exterminators insist that after finding insects in the kitchen, you need to get rid of them very quickly. Food moth carries a special danger to children. A fragile organism can acutely perceive a meal of contaminated products.

General rules for insect control

• it is a mistake to put cereals in the refrigerator, low temperatures only lead to the fact that the larvae fall asleep. After returning to a humid and warm environment, insects will begin to actively multiply.
• larvae, eggs die only at high temperatures. It is allowed to steam the cereals in the oven for at least 20 minutes, otherwise some individuals may survive, the pest control will have to be repeated again;
• not for nothing that our mothers and grandmothers kept cereals, dried herbs in tin cans. Insects are unable to gnaw through metal, glass, wood and foil. But fabric, paper, polyethylene covers - easily. Store all edibles in tightly closed glass containers with special seals. So you can see the pest through a glass jar, the insects will not spread throughout the kitchen;
• wash all jars in which there was infected cereal in vinegar solution. Ordinary soap does not affect moths in any way, insects can even live in packs of powder. It is allowed to wash with soapy water after vinegar treatment for additional hygiene.

Important! No methods will help if you do not destroy all contaminated food. It is also recommended to thoroughly wash the furniture, the room itself, carry out general cleaning by adding a little table vinegar to the water for mopping.

Chemical agents will help to completely rid the kitchen of annoying insects, which excludes the salvation of infected products. All remedies against grain moth can be divided into two groups:

• elimination insecticides. The products consist of chemical elements aimed at poisoning adults, larvae, death of eggs;
• repellents. The products include only natural ingredients that can repel insects. Products cannot destroy moths, but contribute to their resettlement to other territories.

Aerosols

How to deal with food moths in an apartment? One of the most effective means consider aerosols. Manufacturers produce a mass of products that are similar in composition and action, designed to rid the kitchen of food-eating insects in a short period of time.

Popular aerosols:

• Antimol. It is allowed to use on kitchen furniture, fabrics, the duration of the action of the product is amazing - the effect lasts up to one year;
• Armol. The product is designed for the rapid destruction of moths, the product affects not only butterflies, but also has a prolonged effect on larvae;
• Combat. It is famous for its universal action, it destroys all types of moths. Safe for pets and can be used on all surfaces.

For help choosing the right aerosol, contact a consultant in a specialized store. Consider the presence of children in the house. At the time of pest control, it is better to leave the premises, pick up pets, children, even plants. Then thoroughly ventilate the dwelling, insects cannot stand fresh air.

Traps

Flying individuals must also be destroyed to prevent the resumption of food contamination. To do this, some use a regular newspaper or slippers. The moth flies badly, it is not difficult to catch it. If this method is not to your liking, use purchased traps that attract insects. The means are lubricated with a special substance, the pest sticks and can no longer fly, and eventually dies.

The Aeroxon food moth trap has proven to be excellent. The adhesive surface of the product does not dry out for a long time, the special aroma attracts butterflies. The trap can be purchased at any hardware store, the cost of one package does not exceed 200 rubles. One trap should be enough to completely destroy adults, if this does not happen, get another tool.

Folk recipes

Proven remedies for food moths in the apartment: http://site/nasekomye/blohi/kak-izbavitsia.html and read about how to get rid of fleas in the apartment yourself.

Food moth is an insect familiar to each of us, like a cockroach. But the latter, to the great joy of all homeowners, managed to be brought out, unlike the moth, which continues to fly around the kitchen and spoil food - bulk cereals, sweets and other groceries. Is it possible to get rid of it and how to do it?

Types of insects

There are several types of moths - food moths, but in order to get rid of them, it is not at all necessary to know all the features of them. appearance. Suffice it to say that food representatives differ from clothing representatives - that is, those that feed on woolen clothes.

The latter rarely catch the eye of the household, but they do their job properly, but the food ones fly freely around the kitchen and, if desired, the hostess will always find a place from where they appear.

Many are interested in: do food moths eat clothes? No, they eat only groceries and wardrobe items are of no interest to them.

This insect has a fairly short breeding cycle. Room temperature and air humidity of about 50% are ideal conditions for their existence and from the appearance of one clutch of eggs to another it can take about two months, and sometimes much less.

Professional entomologists say that an adult does not eat anything at all, and lives only about a week, however, each female lays up to one and a half hundred eggs at a time, and in places where future offspring can eat fully and normally.

Where do larvae develop and why are they dangerous?

Where is the food moth most often found? She does not disdain much of what is stored in kitchen cabinet each housewife - dried fruits, cocoa, nuts, sugar, flour, cereals, crackers, cookies, not very sharp spices, etc.

Moth larvae not only eat the above products, but also wrap themselves in a silk cocoon. As a result, cereals or flour crumple, and neat nests with a worm inside appear in the nuts.

With the beginning of active economic relations between countries and continents, the food moth quickly spread throughout the world, destroying and rendering the contents of granaries unusable. This is precisely the harm of food moths for humans - it is no longer possible to eat groceries contaminated with moths.

And if in African countries fried larvae are a delicacy, then for our compatriots the pleasure of such food is very doubtful. Infected grain in warehouses is sent for processing, as a result of which the buyer buys cereals that are no longer suitable for human consumption in the store and brings them to their homes.

Fighting food moth

It is difficult to deal with this domestic insect. Having defeated him at least once and completely got rid of such a neighborhood, it cannot be guaranteed that it will not fall into the apartment again with contaminated flour or bread.

To destroy it, the most different ways, here is some of them:

• Whatever method you decide to deal with the flying moth, first of all you need to destroy all its infected products. Sort through all the cereals in the kitchen cabinet, carefully inspect the contents of all packages and send them without regret to the trash can. If you feel sorry for throwing away all this goodness, you can sort through the cereal, removing the larvae from it, and then warm it up in the oven at a temperature of at least 60 ⁰С. In this way, you will destroy the laid eggs and you will already be able to use bulk products for cooking;
• how to remove food moth? You can destroy eggs and larvae that are on the surface of cabinets and bedside tables using aerosol insecticides. The most widely used drugs such as "Raptor", "Combat", "Armol", and "Antimol". However, in no case should they be sprayed onto food, as the toxic components that make up their composition can harm human health. If for this reason you are afraid to use such means of struggle, take ordinary vinegar and wipe all the walls and compartments of kitchen furniture with it;
• traps for food moths give a good effect. The fact is that it is not so easy to catch flying butterflies with your hands, and a special trap with a sticky adhesive base attracts them with its smell and ensures the complete destruction of the insect that has fallen into its “net”.

Folk remedies

What else is the food moth afraid of? Our grandmothers and great-grandmothers did not have the opportunity to use special insecticides, and they fought this insect with medicinal herbs and other ways. For example, it has been observed that moths are repelled by strongly smelling herbs - wormwood, tansy, lavender, rosemary.

She doesn’t “like” the smell of citrus fruits, laundry and strawberry soap, cones horse chestnut. However, starting to use any one of the food moth remedies presented, you may be faced with the fact that the insect will get used to, adapt to the smell and stop being afraid of it.

Moth in the kitchen is often not as easy to remove as it might seem at first glance, especially inexperienced owners in the fight against this pest. The reason for this is that the main habitat is dry food, and they can only be removed by getting rid of all the affected stocks, and then without fail having exterminated adult butterflies.

Thus, in order to remove moths in the kitchen, it is necessary to approach this task in a complex manner. It will not be possible to destroy the kitchen moth with quick one-time measures, but with a competent approach, it can be removed quickly and efficiently.

On a note

Often people, seeing the characteristic grayish-yellow butterflies in the kitchen, begin to puzzle over where this moth comes from. The reason for its appearance does not depend on the owner of the apartment in any way - it simply enters the house with purchased contaminated food. As a rule, these are cereals, flour, sugar, dried fruits, nuts, and sometimes even pasta. Moth almost never appears in the kitchen, flying in from the street - only larvae spread in products. As a rule - in expired and untreated from pests.

Moth control is not only and not so much the direct destruction of insects as competent prevention and compliance with food storage rules. But first things first.

Food status monitoring

As a rule, moth larvae enter the house in food, and already here they pupate, turn into butterflies and make themselves felt. That is why, in order to be effective in the kitchen, you must:

It is especially important at the same time to check all the bins and pantries: usually it is in a long-forgotten package, for example, with buckwheat or dried bird cherry, that the main kitchen moth incubator is present.

In the photo - a moth chrysalis in semolina in the kitchen:

It is interesting

Generally speaking, the kitchen moth is the collective name for several species of butterflies in the moth family. Most often, barn and flour moths are found in the house, but other species can sometimes come across. Distinctive feature barn moth - a light transverse stripe on dark brown wings. Its caterpillars differ little from the caterpillars of the codling moth.

Processing of kitchen furniture

This set of measures is aimed at the destruction of larvae crawling out to pupate. As a rule, in all moths, caterpillars leave food and crawl around the room in search of convenient places to create a cocoon. At these moments, they come across in the kitchen on its walls, ceiling, at the junctions of furniture with walls.

Good for processing insecticidal aerosols used in the fight against ants and cockroaches, as well as insecticidal pencils (for example, the well-known Masha's chalk). At the same time, strong-smelling repellents will not give practically any effect here, but simply scare the butterflies away from the locations of odorous substances.

There are also special ones - for example, Armol, Raptor from moths - but their effectiveness against moths in the kitchen is much lower than against clothes moths.

“Where could the mole come from in the kitchen if we didn’t have it from birth? Butterflies under the ceiling, caterpillars crawl along the walls. In a bag with buckwheat their cocoons. Threw them out of the house, only it did not help. Now I’m going to buy anti-moth products.”

Irina, Odessa

It is important to understand that even after poisoning moth larvae once with a reliable aerosol, sometimes you can achieve only a temporary effect: the exit of caterpillars from food is not coordinated, and already two or three days after processing the kitchen, new caterpillars may appear in it.

There are preparations made according to the principle of microencapsulation, they provide a prolonged action. The most famous of these preparations is Get, which allows but also cockroaches, ants, and even bugs resistant to the removal of various insecticides. Of course, this remedy should only be used against larvae in kitchen furniture, since the drug should not come into contact with food.

It should also be borne in mind that fighting kitchen moths only with the help of special preparations is not effective. Still, the main part of pests is found in food products, and it is with this part that it is necessary first of all to conduct a targeted fight.

Butterfly destruction

Now let's imagine another, also common situation: you have a moth in the kitchen, but all the products were checked and sorted out, the larvae were destroyed and thrown away with the infected products. However, moth butterflies survived and continue to fly around the kitchen, and in large numbers.

In this case, it is imperative to bring the matter to the end and take up the extermination of butterflies. After all, it is they who are able to lay eggs invisible to the eye on food, making it possible for a new generation of pests to appear.

Breeding moth butterflies is quite simple. Usually, you don’t even have to use chemicals for this. A fly swatter and a simple slipper are quite enough to slap even a few dozen adults.

“I don’t know where the moth came from in the kitchen, but this infection hurt a lot. Still okay, while the butterflies were flying, but when the worms climbed, I could not stand it at all. But the main thing, no matter how much you push them, they all appear and appear. It turned out they were climbing out of last year's nuts on the balcony. They threw out the nuts, a kilogram of infected cell, passed all the butterflies - and peace and grace became. I really didn’t expect that I would cope with the adversity so quickly. ”

Antonina, Eremeyskoe

In warehouses or kitchens of catering establishments, insecticidal aerosols are used to kill moth butterflies - professional Tetrix, Diazinon or means general use Combat, Raptor, Raid. The grain moth in the kitchen is usually destroyed on a specially designated day off, and after processing the room, it is thoroughly cleaned.

Prevention measures

After all contaminated products are thrown out of the house, and the larvae and butterflies are exterminated with special means, you should not relax: the moth may appear in the kitchen again. To avoid this, you must:

• check all products brought into the house
• maintain cleanliness and remove all spilled products on the floor or at the table (bedside table)
• throw away or use old stocks of food
• use special repellents in food storage areas. For this, special anti-moth sections and some folk remedies are suitable, which should be placed in bedside tables and cabinets.

The most interesting thing is that an insect can appear in any apartment, regardless of whether it is clean or not. They can get into the house along with contaminated products from the store or from the street in the warm season. The most interesting thing is that there are an order of magnitude more cases of infection from store products.

The adult is like a butterfly small size(about 1.5 centimeters long), mostly dark gray or brown. An adult moth practically does not eat, and its larvae are able to eat everything that impedes their path. This is why they are harmful, spoiled foods should not be eaten.

The larvae feed on dry foods: cereals, dried fruits, nuts, cookies, cocoa. If you notice moths in the house, be prepared for new offspring. Adults are able to lay up to 180 larvae at a time.

Folk remedies for fighting moths and larvae

The first thing to do is to audit all products. Don't miss anything, moths can even be in pet food. Carefully inspect the food, for the presence of not only larvae. A sign of infection is also the presence of their cocoons, which look like cobwebs or mold. We send these products to the trash can.

We shift untouched food into tin or glass containers. Or we send it to the refrigerator or freezer for quarantine. Next, we free all the shelves in the kitchen cabinet and prepare the solution.

For this you will need:

• hot water;
• laundry soap;
• vinegar.

Wash cabinet gently with hot soapy water. Then wipe everything damp cloth and wipe again, but now with diluted vinegar.