Friday, July 23, 2021

Fear No Weevil

 Day 1. Bob, there are 4 little black bugs on the counter. he did not answer, I did not repeat.
Day 2. Bob, there are little black bugs on the counter by the toaster oven. he did not answer, I did not repeat.
Day 3. BOB THERE ARE BUGS ON THE COUNTERS. I JUST KILLED 7 of THEM! He heard me, so did the neighbors.
He said, What kind of bugs?
I said You know, the mealybugs or flour bugs.
His reply, I have no idea what you are talking about
OF COURSE he didn't, when has he ever cleaned out cabinets?
I say, You know, the little black things that just appear out of no where inside flour, meal, or cereal boxes.
He says Nothing! 
I say, Did you HEAR ME?
Yes, I heard you, what do you want me to do.



With steam coming out of my ears,
I checked flour, meal, cereal, crackers and dog food. NOTHING!

I attacked the dog food storage cabinet first. Removed enough stuff to fill half the trash/rubbish bin.
See I know some of you call it the rubbish.
I tossed things that expired all the way back to 2011, none of which had bugs, they were  rusted metal pan, 4 ancient dog bowls, and a few things that were last touched in 2006.
I did THREE cabinets, remove/toss/clean/replace.
Nary a weevil to be found.
I made three trips to the recycle and the trash cans, filling each of them half way.
The Last thing I put in the garbage was the box of milk bones, that came with Beau 9 months go and we never used them because he was overweight and I put them away and forgot them.
As i went to toss the box of bones I decided to dump the bones out by the moss rose tree stump for squirrels and any other rodents that might like bones.
As I dumped them, guess what was in the box?
WEEVILS! to me they are mealybugs. What do you call them?

The good news is, I got THREE HOURS of exercise and sweated off at least 100 calories and three cabinets have now been Summer Cleaned and all expired foods are gone

A funny thing happend on the way to clean cabinets, I sat down in the rocker and asked my phone 
What are other names of Weevils
An hour later, after reading it all and laughing madly, here I am telling you the story.

A few questions here that i found people had asked and the answers. for more fun google search is waiting.

What are the bugs in my flour?
they are weevils, they look like rice, but the move around. this means your flour is infested.

Is it safe to eat the bugs in my flour?
The eggs are inside and they hatch, they are common in flour, wheat, rice. They are safe to eat, but not in excess, if you can see them in the cooked food, they are o to eat but not pleasant if you have guests.

How do the bugs get in sealed packages?
Weevils are voracious, they leave the package they came in and chew their way through cardboard to get to the food, PASTA inside the box. they like seal seams and stitching holes, easy to chew threw.
(remember they are edible) 

Why do weevils get in flour?
If the female weevil chooses to lay eggs in the flour in a packaging area, she does so because when they hatch they need food, and will gorge on the flour until they can run ad play in the flour.

How can we prevent this from happening?
When you bring your flour home, place the bag in the freezer for 48 hours. the eggs will never hatch after freezing, which means they will not eat the flour and run and play.

Will all of this information stop me from eating BREAD? 
Nope! I am not dead yet after 76 years of eating bread and who knows how may weevils I have consumed and did not know it.
Remember this...

 See no Weevil, Hear no Weevil, Eat a Weevil
Now sing with me 
Weevil 
Weevil
 Rock You






24 comments:

Tigger's Mum said...

... and of course the lesser of two weevils...

Beatrice P. Boyd said...

Sandra, only you could find such a humorous way to post about this experience. In years past, I also found insects in flour products, only those looked like small moths. Now, I no longer keep any grains orv flours in the store packages, but store everything in plastic containers or glass jars and have never had another incident. Glad you located the source, too bad it came after all your cleaning out, but that was a good thing in hindsight of course.

Martha said...

I'm sure glad you figured out where they were coming from and got some more stuff cleaned out in the process. I hate even thinking about weevils - gross!

Yamini MacLean said...

Hari OM
Yeah, I learned in OZ to transfer to sealed containers...although, if already infested from stocks storage, there can still arise an infestation. I also call them weevils - Mealy Bugs are actually a different critter altogether... YAM xx

eileeninmd said...

Hello,

Those darn weevils, I wonder how many we have eaten over the years. UGH!!
We transfer most things to the plastic and glass containers. I have not notice them, yet! I know they can come home with you from the stores. Take care, have a happy weekend!

Chatty Crone said...

YUCK!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

easyweimaraner said...

no pleasant if you have guests ... ummm...yes! hahahahaha

bobbie said...

YUCK, and groan ~ but I love the "Weevil rock you"!!!

My Mind's Eye said...

I keep flour and corn meal in the fridge always. Mama always do so do I.
Probably for that very reason.
LOL

photowannabe said...

HaHaHaHaHa...
Thanks for my giggle and rock solid information.
What a way to get your cupboards clean!!!
I have gotten them in my flower and boxes of Rice a Roni..really gross.
I guess I just call them ugly bugs...
I put my flour and sugar etc. in zip lock bags when I bring it home from the store. It seems to have stopped the infestation...the same with pasta..which reminds me I have to put my box of spaghetti I just bought into a bag...One moment please...
Okay..back again...thanks for the reminder..(:0)
A few hours until my elder-care time. Looks like it will be pleasant enough to be outside for a while before it heats up again!
Sue

Hootin Anni said...

My mother in law had a flour bin...always bugs in the flour. It was enough to turn my stomach.

Linda said...

Amazing information! Been there and done that!! I can go you one better! What are the tiny insects/bugs that get into cereal?? I have had at least three experiences with them - all unpleasant. They were in the healthy bran type cereal and I noticed them when we were eating.....I could not HELP but notice after consuming most of the cereal and lookig down at the floating insects black against the white milk. Certainly not weevils since these had little legs and were real insects. I spit out the food that was in my mouth! Now I need to research what these bugs are called and rest assured, I check my bowl for floating critters BEFORE eating now!!

Ginny Hartzler said...

Weevil rock you, I LOVE it!!! I call them both weevils and Mealy Bugs. Never use the word rubbish. I have wanted to know how on earth they get in food and just appear from nowhere. I figured eggs were involved. I am glad you found them, and they were only in one place. I have never had them, and would freak out if I saw any. I would do the exact same thing that you did, while needing several Valium as well. Then a long nap.

The Adventures of the LLB Gang said...

Oh Sandra, only you could have me cracking up over a buggy post! Thanks for the Friday belly laughs!

Mevely317 said...

So THIS only showed up in my reading list RIGHT THIS VERY MINUTE. (Yes, I'm yelling at Blogger, wondering what else have I missed.)

Anyway. I never heard of weevils until my mother called, practically in tears. She'd return from a visit to our place (Texas) to discover they were everywhere -- even in the guest room steamer trunk containing bed linens. Unfortunately, I didn't take it so seriously. Until, of course it happened to us. They even got into the triffle bowl matchbook collection atop our refrigerator. I was like a lady possessed -- pulling everything out of the cabinets and pouring straight ammonia on them. It was a long time before I quit refrigerating everything not canned.

PS - I don't say 'rubbish', but there are signs around here warning people not to dispose of their rubbish except in designated places.

DeniseinVA said...

Never had weevils but had moths once that had eaten through a flour bag. Their larvae were crawling all over the place, and there was flour everywhere. Really grossed me out. Not knowing much about larvae, who knows, maybe they were weevils and I didn't know it. My Dad used to tell me a story about the bread they were given on board ship back in the 40s. He said it was full of weevils and they just ate the bread anyhow, yuk! Now I know to put the flour in the freezer ;) Great post! Made me laugh, thank you!

Ann said...

After all these years I am just now finding out what a fun word weevil is. You had me laughing with your title.

crafty cat corner said...

I've gone all creepy reading this. lol
I can sympathise with you and Bob not hearing, same thing here. I feel like a parrot having to say the same thing over and over again, lol
Briony
x

Ruth Hiebert said...

i can only recall once having these bugs in my flour. All the remaining flour left the house rather quickly.

Bonnie Schulte said...

What a fun story, had me laughing out loud. The only time I had those little nasty bugs, was from a 5lb bag of flour. I always dump the flour into a large glass jar, after coming home from the store. This bag had bugs that "came with it from the store" Happy to find them, at least right away.. Oh, isn't it funny, how our sweet husbands sometimes can't hear us? Heard a joke about that. Tell your husband a secret, he won't repeat it, wasn't listening anyway...Hugs from WI

Olde Dame Holly Rose said...

Oh my gosh you saved the best two quips for last, I am laughing and shaking my head at the same time! Sorry Dr. Weevil and his minions visited your Milkbones but at least you got a lot of cabinet cleaning and reorganizing done! We called them weevils here. Mealybugs we called something different, I think we said mealworms.

CheerfulMonk said...

Thank you. 😀

Betty Manousos said...

I always enjoy reading your posts. what a great sense of humor!! you had me laughing out. 😀

Debby@Just Breathe said...

I've never heard them called weevils. I have to say it was great to get those cabinets cleaned out. Not that I want bugs to appear but I do need to clean out cabinets....just saying!! That is great advice on freezing the items to kill the eggs. Way to go on the exercise you got.