You open a bag of whole wheat flour, a box of cereal, or a bag of dog food only to find little worms, moths, or even some webs. Ew! Here’s how to get rid of these pantry pests.
What Are Pantry Moths?
You’ve just encountered the Indian meal moth, perhaps the most common among the “pantry pests.” These moths can infest bags or boxes of flour, grains, dried beans, seeds, nuts, cereals, baking chocolate, cake mixes, rice, nuts, dried fruit, dog food, birdseed, teas, herbs, spices, potpourri mixtures, and even decorative wreaths that include nuts, fruits, and/or seedheads.
One Cooperative Extension fact sheet describes what you’ve just seen this way: “Most of the ‘damage’ to stored products occurs when the larvae spin massive amounts of silk that accumulate fecal pellets, cast skins, and egg shells in food products.”
Not a very appetizing image.
Where Do Pantry Moths Come From?
Although you may need to do some serious cupboard-cleaning, don’t lay the blame for the infestation on your poor housekeeping. Meal moths probably laid those eggs at a food-packaging facility or in the bulk bins at the natural food store.
After mating, the half-inch long gray/brown female meal moth finds a suitable environment for laying her eggs—as many as 400 at one time. When the eggs hatch, the larvae feed and grow for several weeks before spinning a cocoon (pupa), from which emerges an adult moth. Depending on temperature, food source, and other factors, the meal moth’s life cycle lasts from a month to 10 months or longer.
Are Pantry Moths Harmful?
The good news: This pest does not cause disease, even if you accidently cook and eat a few larvae (gross), and it doesn’t escape your foodstuffs to eat its way through your fabrics or furniture. It likes the same foods that you and your pets like.
The bad news: Indian meal moths can be difficult to eradicate, especially if they’ve completed their life cycle and dispersed throughout your pantry.
Photos: Indian meal larva and adult moth. Credit: John Lyle, University of Florida.
How to Control Pantry Moths
- First, get the infested flour and any other infested products you might find out of your house. Don’t just throw them in the trash, unless you plan on taking the trash out right away. You could also dig a hole away from the house and bury the infested product(s) in the soil.
- Don’t store that trash in the garage or basement while you wait for trash pickup or your next trip to the dump.
- Then, remove everything from your cupboards and food-storage areas, including cans and glass jars. Vacuum and scrub all surfaces. Remove and replace torn or peeling shelf liners. Using a flashlight, pay special attention to the corners and the undersides of shelves, as well as to cracks or holes in shelving.
- Meal-moth larvae have legs, and often move quite far from their original home. You may find larvae and pupae tucked away in door hinges, backs of door knobs, and corners of wire baskets; underneath shelves, and around the edges of jar lids, cans, and non-food items also stored in your pantry or cupboard.
- The larvae can chew through paper and plastic. If (like me) you tend to keep an assortment of nuts, fruits, and grains bought from bulk storage bins and stored in plastic or paper bags, check every bag for openings that could have allowed entry of meal-moth larvae, or for holes the larvae may have chewed themselves.
- If you have concerns, place any items that seem intact with no signs of damage to the food inside, in the freezer at 0° or below for four days. That will kill any eggs that might be present.
- Now, resolve to store all pantry edibles in sealed glass or metal containers as soon as you bring the food products into your home. If a product is infested, the larvae won’t be able to escape the container to contaminate other products.
- Keep small bags of spices in the refrigerator or freezer.
- Keep pet foods and birdseed away from the pantry in covered metal containers in a laundry room, garage or outside shed.
- Hang seed-and-fruit wreaths outside. Better yet, purchase or make wreaths of twigs or evergreens that don’t contain edibles.
- Consider placing some meal-moth pheromone traps (widely available online and in hardware, garden, and home-supply stores). These traps monitor the presence of meal moths, and perhaps prevent a future infestation. The traps work by attracting the male moths, who then become stuck to glue boards and die, unable to fertilize female moths. (Warning: Some folks find the glue traps too gruesome, since the trapped moths aren’t killed quickly, but flutter for some time before dying.)
Note: Don’t be deterred by negative comments from others who claim the traps didn’t work and now they have moths flying all around their homes. These folks are probably aren’t seeing meal moths, but rather one or more of the many other Lepidopterans (butterflies and moths) that commonly visit home interiors.
Finally, please don’t use insecticides to kill meal moths. Not only are they unlikely to be effective, but many aren’t safe for use around food.
See more about pantry pests—mice!
Do you have or have you had pantry moths? What did you do to get rid of them?
Addendum: September 19, 2020
Wow! So many good suggestions from readers. Thank you all!
- Add a few bay leaves to each container of stored seeds, flours, grains, or dried fruit. Also, if you have one, your cookie jar.
- Sprinkle diatomaceous earth around the edges and in the corners of your pantry shelves.
- Look way beyond your pantry for moths, webs and/or larvae, e.g., around your ceilings and the walls of your food-storage spaces.
Reader Comments
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Dryer Vent!!
We noticed pantry moths about a year ago. Upon investigation, we found the guilty culprit was an infested bag of wheat meal. We cleaned out the pantry, threw a bunch of stuff away, cleaned everything, froze everything, re-stocked and put out the pheromone traps. We seemed to have had some success but later noticed they seemed to be coming out of our clothes dryer. We especially noticed them when we would pull out the lent trap to clean it, moths would come out. We took the dryer completely apart and could find no signs of them. I placed a pheromone trap inside the dryer vent that goes up and out of the roof and seeled it. We have not seen a single moth in any of the traps in the pantry or laundry room but when I unseeled the vent, the trap had several. So they appear to be nesting in there. Any ideas on how to deal with that??? I am at my wits end!
tricky problem
I’m not sure what you mean by “sealing” your dryer vent, G, but those moths you see may be the last of them.
Unless they have a food source close by, any eggs laid by the female moths might hatch, but the larvae can’t grow. If you do see more moths, keep checking for any potential food sources. You might spritz around the vent area with a half vinegar-half water, or a 10 percent bleach solution with a spray bottle. Let us know what happens!
Pantry and meal moths
Bake that flour and those grains! THEN store them in glass. So all it takes as enough time to bring the medium to 150 degrees, let it cool and package it.
I agree with the pheromone traps being beneficial. If it grosses you out, consider the alternatives. It’s not so bad after all! I prefer Dr. Killigans traps. They seem to work better for me if I get lax and don’t bake something. ie had some moths get in the pantry in a bag of raw nuts and didn’t notice them right away ... ugh! (ears laid flat:)
Pantry moths
Noticed pantry moths (and some slugs) in my kitchen about a month ago - I was killing about a dozen to twenty a day. I cleaned out my pantry - found a pack of moths in a box of curry-flavoured nuts - at least I know how the whole thing got started! Even after empyting the pantry (what remained of my food went into the fridge or on the kitchen table) and cleaning out the shelves the moths kept coming back. So I read what everyone was saying here and this is what I did: 1) I thoroughly cleaned the hinges of the pantry (they looked suspiciously dirty) and 2) I put a few drops of peppermint essential oil on the shelves and basically anywhere where I had found some moths. I also slipped in a few bay leaves on the shelves. I haven't seen any moths in a week! Thank you for the great advice, and my heart goes out to those who are still fighting these pests!
PANTRY MOTHS IN PET FOOD
PET FOODS are sometimes more than you asked for! We have parrots, and found that we were sharing space with pantry moths and at first didn't know why..finally figured out they were coming from the open bags of bird seed, we sealed the bags, and studied to find that freezing the bags and keeping the food in sealed "jars" would keep the pantry moths under control. That worked fine and the pantry moths went away. Then after many months they were back...Not Happy..What went wrong? Well again we did our homework and then our son, was feeding our dog, and announced that the dog food bag was alive with pantry moths, more homework and sure enough, turns out a lot of dog food is also coming with pantry moths included..BAD BAD, so now we have forty plus pounds of dog food with pantry moths, thought about packing it back to the store, however found that many have then brought another bag home with more pantry moths, so we took some dog food out of the bag and froze it to have some food to get us by till we figured this all out. The dog seems to like the frozen dog food better, at least after it thaws! How will we freeze all that dog food? It certainly will not fit into the freezer! and freezing it in smaller containers is OK for now, however really not too good in the long run. Then after more study, found out that these pantry moths also die with heat, and 120F for four hours or 140F for two ours makes them go away, even the eggs or such. Being a engineer, I then decided that was the answer. We put the dog food bag in a large tote, on top of a few short 2x4 pieces,, so air could move all around the bag, added a heater, a thermometer to see how high the temperature is inside the tote, and were good to go. Turns out most small room heaters have internal high temp limit thermostats that limit maximum temperature to around 110F or so. After some more study, found that the common hand held hair dryer has a higher temperature limit, and gives us a little over 140F inside the tote, even running at low (750W) setting. So we are now pantry moth free. Life is very good. I know this was long, however hope that it helps those who want to save the pet food.
Pantry moths
You might want to add ceilings to the areas where you find the worms. I live in an old home and thought the things up there were painted-over staples...until I realized that they weren’t in the same place every night! Now I go check several times a day to get them down, one at a time because they are amazingly fast, with a broom. Disposal is a matter of whatever you’re comfortable with.
DO ***NOT*** USE ZIP-TOP BAGS -- MOTHS CAN LAY EGGS IN THEM.
The moths can lay their eggs through plastic, creating microscopic holes that you can't see (whether you're storing goods at home or buying a bag of flour or rice), and then the larva can chew their way out after fattening up on the contents. So don't store anything in plastic in your pantry, bc it won't keep the moths out or the larvae in.
In addition, we all have to stop using plastic -- most of it doesn't get recycled, and it's a MAJOR pollutant that is causing enormous health problems for all animals, including humans. I urge you to read the two articles below (the 2nd is in comic-book format, and is very short).
www . npr . org/2020/09/11/897692090/how-big-oil-misled-the-public-into-believing-plastic-would-be-recycled
www . theguardian . com/us-news/2019/jun/23/all-the-plastic-ever-made-study-comic
Pantry moths -- what works for me
*** Pls note that the moths will also feed and lay eggs in compostables. Bc I live in an apt. and need to save my compostable bits (a local market accepts them), I had placed a metal pail on my back burner, and that's where they re-infested. The pail contained sweet-po peels, apple cores, and banana peels -- and apparently they were a hit. (I made sure to dry all items before popping them in, in order to avoid mold.)
I have almost gotten rid of the moths by:
--- storing most non-canned edible items in the fridge or freezer (I'd do it anyway to keep beans and rice fresh),
--- transferring the remaining items (sugar, flour, nooch) to large glass jars with secure seals, and
--- using traps.
Yes, the traps are inhumane, and I struggle with that -- I stopped eating most animal products bc I don't want living creatures to suffer and soon will give up all. But I'm willing to accept this suffering because I'm unable to keep up with frequent spraying of essential oils, and that would lead to an even bigger infestation and more suffering.
Thanks, Ms. Boyles, for sharing so much useful info.
Pantry Moths
We found using bay leaves stopped our long time Infestation. Layered them in our pasta packages and boxes and haven't seen any in years. I was definitely surprised. I bought a large bag at an Indian grocery store for cheap and freshness.
Pantry Moths
This is just another "fix" for the moths...we used diatomaceous earth in all our cabinets and elsewhere to put a halt to them
Pantry Moths
I had them about 6 years ago. I had to throw out all my food. While shopping I then noticed that a bag of rice I was picking up to buy had the silky webbing in it. You can tell because lightweight things like rice hang funny in the bag as though they are full of static or defying gravity. I changed grocery stores because I realized they were infested and haven't shopped there again. What I did was bought a bunch of ball canning jars in the 1/2 gallon and quart size. Everything goes in those immediately. Cake Mix, pudding, crackers, popcorn, everything. I then use those oxygen absorbers and a few bay leaves. The critters are gone. They haven't come back in 6 years. Btw I don't trust zip lock bags to keep them out because during my initial infestation things in zip lock bags were infested too. Go with glass.
tried everything
Like other people here, I've tried EVERYTHING and nothing works. Here's what I've done over the last six months:
• All contaminated food items were discarded.
• All food items that aren't in the fridge or freezer are in air-tight containers and ZipLoc bags
• All food items have been frozen for at least 4 hours, and all new food items get frozen when they arrive.
• There is no sign of infiltration in my food items: no larvae, no webs, no signs of entry. This has been the case since December, when I cleaned and sealed everything in Ball jars, ZipLoc bags, etc.
• My pantry shelves have been washed
• I bought peppermint, eucalyptus, and cedarwood essential oils and mixed with white vinegar to make a spray, which I spray several times a week in the affected areas (on the wall and ceiling). Warning: peppermint and eucalyptus is POISONOUS TO CATS so I have been careful not to spray it near them or near their food dishes.
• I even bought those pheromone glue traps. I hate glue traps b/c the animal suffers. I constantly monitor it and kill the moths that land, but of course I feel horrible when I wake up in the morning and see there have been moths struggling there for who knows how many hours. I do not recommend these. They are cruel and don't solve the problem.
• I personally kill every moth I see in my apartment throughout the day. When I go to bed at night, I see zero. You'd think their population would finally disappear, but nope: the next morning there are more. The mostly come out at night after dark. I kill about a dozen per day.
I'm defeated. I don't know where they're procreating, and I don't know what they're eating, since it doesn't appear to be my food.
Pantry Moths
To help control pantry moths, I made a mixture of vinegar, water, 15 drops of eucalyptus essential oil & 5-7 drops of peppermint essential oil in a spray bottle! I suggest you wear a mask when spraying bin an enclosed area! We sprayed all cracks in our pantry once a week until no more moths were found! It does take awhile, so be patient!
Pantry moths
We did everything g, vacuumed, washed with bleach, repainted the pantry, cleaned cans, and still have moths! We but the traps every 6 weeks. Have been doing this for a year. We keep boxes of food in the refrigerator and freezer. It does appear, though, that they are ingesting the One Bite poison we have for rats, but it doesn’t seem like that’s even doing anything. We’re ready to give up!
freeze 7 days then put iin zip locks
free foods flour and other items for 7 days kills the eggs . Then store in zip ock bags
Darn moths.
Like others have said, some things that definitely have helped me:
•all feedstuffs in airtight containers, helps against other pests too, so win/win
•search out and eliminate adults and larvae. I use an electric racquet made for flies. In the morning and evening the adults will rest. Find them and ZAP. "Worms" do indeed love crevices. Vacuuming those with a brush usually gets them.
•freezing bulk stuff a few days before storing airtight to avoid anything that came along in it.
Haven't tried the Bay leaf trick yet, but thanks for the hint y'all, I will be looking to add that to the arsenal!
food in zip lock bags
the moth larvae or WHATEVER stage can EAT thru the plastic, that did NOT work for me.
Bay Leaves!
I've had problems with the meal moths in my dried products in the past but, after disposing of the infested product I included a couple of bay leaves in my ne dried products (i.e. flour, rice, spices, etc.). I haven't had an issue with the moths since. Just toss a couple of bay leaves in your dry products containers and you'll be good to go. They don't like the presence of the leaves. I keep them in my bird seed, in my flour, in my legumes, in my rice, well, you get the idea. It's natural and it works. Good luck everyone!
Pantry Moths
I had a major infestation a few years ago. I found a really cheap 50lb bag of wild bird seed. I opened it only to have a face full of those moths come out. Next thing I know they were making little cocoons in every room of my house! Especially where the wall and ceiling come together. I did all the cleaning and the purging. My best idea was to buy 2 butterfly nets at the dollar store, for my grandson (5 yrs old) and I. We would go moth hunting together. It still took a while to finally clear them out but, the fun we had together doing it, was well worth the time.
Indian Meal Moths
I found the pheromone traps to be the most effective. I hid them at the back of my pantry and eventually wasn’t finding any more webs or moths infiltrating my dry goods.
pantry moyhs
I have used moth traps that were quite effective.in ridding my pantry of moths.
Flour bugs
My Mother said to keep a couple bay leaves in your flour container and it will keep bug out of the flour. I am 80 years old, have always done this and have never had bugs in my flour container. I don't use it often so I know this works.
Pantry Moths
I agree with Camielle. I've used bay leaves with some success as long as there wasn't a bad infestation. If there is, the pheromone traps work really well.
Pantry moths
I stopped having pantry moths decades ago. The glass jars are good, but the best is to completely foil incoming infestations by rethinking storage. All susceptible products, i.e., tea, corn meal, oatmeal, barley, spices that didn’t come in sealed glass, etc., live in my freezer. When the ants make their annual spring visit, the Cheerios and Chex go in too. Plenty of room in there, and nary a larva or moth again. If I want to, after a few days or weeks I can replant them in glass for the cupboards. The birdseed lives in a big metal trash can outdoors in a wooden locker secured from raccoons and squirrels, and winter takes care of anything that hitchhikes in with it.
Cabinet Moths
A few years ago I read that bay leaves will repel the moths. I've sprinkled them in my pantry ever since and, yes, they do. No more moth problems.
Pantry moths
I had a horrible moth problem 2 years ago. I think they came in with my son’s parrot food. They had completely infested his room and moved on to my pantry. Like others I threw everything out and cleaned well. I researched natural solutions and somewhere along the way someone recommended bay leaves. To this day I have bay leaves taped to my pantry walls and ceiling and have not had another moth problem.
I had them too!
My wife will go through a 50lbs bag of flour in a year. I bought a sealed lid container to put the big bag of flour in. They are called Gamma2 Vittles Vault on Amazon. They work!
Moths
Thank you
moths in the flowers
Several weeks ago i bought two large flowering plants for the indoors for the holidays. They are a type of mum and in a deep burgundy, so lovely to look at in the living room. I then noticed moths flying around them or the lighting. Couldn't figure it out but then when I water them again more moths. I put them outside to completely water them then tried again. In the mean time while they were outside, no moths inside. It seems to me that the flowers had become root bound and dried out too much at the market place, then attracted moths? Anyway, I have left them outdoors this past week and have not suffered them in the house. Anyone had this experience? I haven't even seen a moth until I got those plants.
Aphids
I'm thinking what you are seeing are Aphids, they look like moths but are smaller and white in color. If so you can take plant outside and there is a spray insecticide made especially for them.
to all of you with seemingly unsolvable meal-moth problems
The national Cooperative Extension website, E-Xtension offers a wonderful Ask-an-Expert feature that will connect your question(s) with an expert on the topic in your particular area. Do check it out!
Cannot Find the Food Source
My roommate and I have been living with cupboard moths for the past 2.5 years.
These moths came into our lives by the way of infested borrowed flour.
They have since invaded our lives.
As suggested, my roommate and I did a major clean of our kitchen. We used bleach, soap and hot water and dichotomas earth on all cupboards and drawers. We used traps. We noticed a significant decline in our population to the point that we saw nothing in our traps. We thought we were free after 2 years.
However, we never were able to move the fridge or stove to get behind these appliances sweepers/cleaned. So perhaps that's where they resided?
Fast forward to approximately 2 months ago. My roommate and I move into our new place. Never lived in. Brand new.
Suddenly we begin to see these moths. Obviously, we were never free of our pests and they must've hopped on a ride on some appliance or something. And they're multiplying like crazy. We confirmed their presence after observing them in newly placed traps.
We threw out all food that we didn't need (almond flour in airtight sealed glass jars) and a bunch of things in our fridge. We threw away so many cookbooks and checked all our manuals (that resided in a cupboard in our kitchen for signs of these pests. (Side note for 2.5 years my roommate and I placed all our spices, flour everything in the fridge- we had no food in the cupboards).
Things we couldn't bare to throw out- teas and spices have now been in the freezer for almost 2 months.
We threw away any appliance we thought could be infested- a Crock-Pot, a toaster, two blenders. We have a new espresso machine that I cleaned feverishly with vinegar (my roommate just got this $300 machine and I would hate to have to get her to throw it out) We placed dichotomas earth in our cupboards, cleansed everything with vinegar (including peg holes and door hinges). We have not cooked in our new place or brought new groceries. Anything brought in has been placed on the fridge.
These moths have been found in the kitchen, the living room and the foyer.
We had a pest control company come in and do a spray. They sprayed everything. And at first it was fine. 3 days later we found live ones in our traps AND fluttering around.
About a week and a half later we got a second spray. Night of the second spray we saw one fluttering by the fridge but it appeared to be dying. We killed it anyway.
I found a dead one by my bathtub and assumed I mustve stepped on it and brought it in accidently. Why would it be in my bathroom?!? What food source could there be? But today, ten days after our 2nd spray (where they apparently drenched our couch and rug...just in case) we find a small live one by our tv.
I'm at my wits end and ready to move from this brand new apartment, break the lease and abandon all my belongings. Realistically, I can't do that.
We've searched high and low- we think we eliminated their food source.
Can Indian meal moths live in the fridge? Can they live in appliances like tvs, PlayStation store etc? Could they reside in the soil or cactus plants we have bought? Where do these suckers feed? As we're so certain we've removed their food source? Do they live in sink drains perhaps.
We seen no larvae. Nothing.
Please- what is our next step? What are we missing?
Pantry Moths
I have been dealing with them for a year. Followed EVERY SINGLE PIECE OF ADVICE that exists and still they are here. Summer and its high temperatures was the worse. They just had a population explosion. I am at my wits' end.
How the hell do they just keep on coming?
Indian Meal Moths
You're likely to find these moths thriving in the back, motor section of your refrigerator. They like the warmth and there's plenty of crumbs and stuff under the refrigerator to keep them going. They also like to live under your stove and dishwasher for the same reason. I don't know why these places are often not mentioned in articles about getting rid of the moths. 99% of the time, that's where they are. If they're not under these appliances yet, your infestation will be simple to end. Just look through your stored, dry foods, find the source, and throw it away. The scrubbing, the other laborious recommended actions are not necessary and do no good. Most often you'll need to buy a new refrigerator though.
Cupboard moths
We fought this problem for over a year. Fortunately, we told our local farm and feed store about the problem. They carry pest strips that you hang in the kitchen. These are the same strips that they use to protect the inventory in their store. IT WORKED !!!! No more moths.
Advise...go to your local feed store and see what they use!
MOTHS
I just experienced pantry moths. I actually gutted my pantry totally. Used peppermint oil in my diffuser and sprayed with 91% alcohol to drug them and then killed them with a flyswatter. It took me a month to get them all out. Then I painted the room completely and thankfully I have not seen any in the past month. When I set off bombs in my house it acted like they fed on it and multiplied faster. Never want to go thru this again.
Weevils
I am having problems with weevils in my flour grits and meal. I store them in sealed plastic containers. What can I do is it because the eggs were already in the bags when I bought them?
miller moths
We put all grains, dried fruit, etc in glass jars, tight plastic bins. I put bay leaves in them. Millers and other weevils hate bay leaves. I have a home bakery and these bugs are the enemy! If you get an infestation the only thing we found to really get them out was a bug bomb. Of coursd you have to find and get rid of whatever has the bugs in it.
Thank you for this
Thank you for this informative article.
Pantry Moth
I have putting bay leaves in my buckets of bulk goods keeps them at bay. Great article!
Have Bay or Eucalyptus? Moths will take an Exit
Sheila has the right idea. No moths in my cupboards for years since I began using Bay leaves and/or leaves of Eucalyptus which grows rather abundantly on the West coast. Simply tie a sprig into a clean sock or net bag, place on shelf or hang it on the inside of a cupboard door on a small hook or tiny nail, and give it a squeeze. Replace once a year or less or more. Moths hate what they consider the stink, but we consider aromatic. Don't put leaves behind or beneath appliances though, that would be a fire hazard.
PLACE 2 BAY LEAVES IN ALL CANISTERS
I am 71 years old and always place 2 Bay Leaves directly in each of my dry food storage glass canisters (not tightly sealed), replacing leaves yearly. The leaves are big enough to just take out when getting your flour, etc. and then lay it back inside. Only had a moth problem once when I moved and forgot to put in the leaves. Threw out the contaminated flour and meal and replaced with new but also placed the Bay Leaves inside each container. I also keep the leaves laying around inside all my cabinets and behind my appliances. Learned this trick from my mother when flour was sold and stored in cloth bags, she would later use the bags to sew me dresses.
cupboard moths
My Grandma said, "put bay leaves in all your canisters after you decant your items, then leave bay scattered in the cabinets"