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Home remedies for food moths
contents
- Different types
- Precautionary Measures - To prevent food moths from spreading
- Helps to detect moth infestation
- What to do first
- Fight the vermin with home remedies
- Heat and cold
- Thorough cleaning
- With the hair dryer
- Baking powder as a trap
- Parasitic Wasps - A somewhat strange method
- Better no chemistry
Although the food moths are not pathogens, they make the food inedible and simply have lost nothing in a kitchen or pantry. Such pests are found mainly in baking ingredients, dried fruit, legumes, cereals or spices.
Food moths can usually be eliminated well with natural home remedies, but sometimes a little patience is required. (Image: JuergenL / fotolia.com) Different types
"Food moth" is an umbrella term for various types of moths. Thus, flour moth, dried fruit moth and grain moth differ externally in color and size. For eliminating the moths, however, it does not matter what kind it is.
Precautionary Measures - To prevent food moths from spreading
Foodstuffs are best turned into lockable containers as soon as the packaging is opened. Paper or cardboard packaging is not suitable for this. Stocks should be examined at regular intervals. When shopping, the packaging is best always inspected for small holes, as this creates the little pests free access and can then spread well.
As a rule, food moths are brought home more often by shopping than they "fly in" from the outside, since most of them can not fly well. Cleanliness is important to counteract an infestation. So flour, grains or even nut remnants should always be removed. To keep the moths away from shelves and cupboards, hanging dried lavender or sandalwood is recommended.
Laying out scented sachets with lavender keeps food moths away. (Image: igradesign / fotolia.com) The food moths like neither the smell of bay leaves nor carnations. Spread bay leaves and / or cloves between the foods. Of course, both have to be exchanged regularly. It is also possible to hang small spice bags filled with bay leaves and cloves. But these bags must be renewed from time to time.
Food stocks should be monitored on a regular basis and stocks should not be too large. Shock ventilation is better than a constantly open window. There attached mosquito nets are recommended.
Helps to detect moth infestation
To detect an infestation with food moths, the hanging of so-called pheromone traps helps. These traps are equipped with an adhesive that secrete a sex attractant. However, only the males are lured by it, which means that these traps are only for "detecting" but not for fighting. If male food moths fall into the trap, then an exact inspection of all foodstuffs must take place afterwards.
What to do first
If an attack is detected with food moths, the affected food must be discarded and then check the entire supplies for further infestation. Not only crawling or flying beasts, but also threadbare threads, eaten grains or empty dollhouses point to moths. Not the flying moths, but their eggs, the excreta, and the remnant of pupation - all this contaminates the food.
The infested food must be disposed of, as it may settle on the excretions fungi or mites and this may cause as a result of consumption gastrointestinal diseases, skin diseases or allergies
Fight the vermin with home remedies
To combat the food moths, home remedies are recommended. Chemical weapons are not close to food.
Heat and cold
The food moths like neither heat nor cold. Infested food is frozen in the oven for a few days before it ends up in the trash, or heated in the oven for about two hours at 60 to 80 ° C. This ensures that the pests are really killed and can not creep in again.
Thorough cleaning
After removing the affected food, it is important to clean shelves and cabinets thoroughly. Especially in the nooks and crannies, the vermin can keep. It may be necessary to move the cabinets off the wall and also to clean them from below and behind. As a cleaning agent, a vinegar cleaner or a mixture of vinegar and water in the ratio 2: 1 is recommended. It is then wiped with a warm soapy water to which a few drops of lavender essential oil have been added.
With the hair dryer
Especially the corners in shelves or cabinets can be freed of food moths with the help of the hair dryer. Since, as already mentioned, the moths do not like heat, the hair dryer is a very tried and tested remedy. This is held for about 5 minutes on the affected area.
Baking powder as a trap
The food moths are usually attracted by flour. But if this is mixed with baking powder in a ratio of 1: 4, the moths end up in the flour mixture but die because they can not tolerate the baking powder. So you can set a few traps to attract all the food moths and then dispose of the flour mixture in "Success".
Web wasps are natural enemies of the food wasps and can be used to combat them. (Image: Sven Lautenschläger / fotolia.com) Parasitic Wasps - A somewhat strange method
Getting another insect home to fight food moths sounds a bit odd at first. However, this is a very "natural" but somewhat expensive method. The parasitic wasps are almost invisible, make no noise and sting neither human nor animal.
The parasitic wasps are very small, about the size of an i-point. These little creatures need a host to multiply. This is the egg of the moth (food moth or clothes moth). There they put their own egg with the help of their laying knife. The larva of the parasitic wasp, which then develops, feeds on the egg of the moth. This means that the moth can not reproduce. The new, hatched wasp goes on moth eggs search and the whole thing starts from the beginning. If there are no more eggs, the parasitic wasps disappear, either through the window or they disintegrate to the smallest dust, which is simply sucked away.
The parasitic wasps can be ordered on the Internet. These are delivered on small cardboard cards. In order to completely eliminate the food moths, cardboard cards are sent with the tiny little insects in a certain time window, usually at a distance of 3 weeks.
Better no chemistry
With the help of the mentioned home remedies or also through the use of parasitic wasps the food moths can be eradicated. Insect sprays contain chemical insecticides. These are not harmless to health and should not be used better, especially near food. (Sw)