Beware of meal moth larvae in pet food

[fincho]

Two days in a row I have bought products from Illeli(my favourite supermarket) that have been eaten by meal moths.Poppodums were eaten and I could see dead meal moths in the packet.Today I bought cat biscuits and was horrified to find hundreds of maggots in them.If you have never experienced meal moths they are very difficult to get rid of once you get them in your house and will eat through bags to get at pet foods,rice,pasta,cereal and any type of dry foods.

I am taking photos in to them of the maggots because maybe they need to fumigate their storage area but just thought I'd warn people just because they are so difficult to get rid of them once the larvae hatch.

[Medjoul1]

Yesterday I bought an undamaged box of Italian Cat, cat biscuits from an outlet in Lapta and on opening it I found it to be contaminated with white maggots (larvae). The product was in date and I keep the cat food in an airtight container. I assumed it had come from the manufacturer infested?

[Hammerhead]

Yesterday I bought an undamaged box of Italian Cat, cat biscuits from an outlet in Lapta and on opening it I found it to be contaminated with white maggots (larvae). The product was in date and I keep the cat food in an airtight container. I assumed it had come from the manufacturer infested?

These things even get into airtight containers

[sophie]

Last year Ihad the same problem with 6 bags of eukaneuba dog food bought from a Pet shop. When I showed the Manager the tiny holes all over the base and side of the bags, he said that I had made them myself with a pin. Its mostly down to bad and unfumigated storeage. Stand your ground and get your money back, its the fault of the stores, not you!!! They give you a whole lot of rubbish, rather than admit responsibility.

[fincho]

I'm really more concerned about getting them in the house.I will try to explain that if they dont check their storage area they may lose a good deal of stock.They proberly came in with the stock and didnt originate there but they are buffers for chewing into bags.I tried to upload the horrible photo of all the maggots but the file was too big.

[RAZR63]

send me the photo and I will reconfigure and upload it for you, zmomorris@hotmail.com

[foodie]

A few weeks ago ı bought a box of Ready Brek cereal from Sah supermarket. As ı was unloading my shoppıng on my worktop ın the kıtchen ı found several maggots. On checkıng all my shoppıng they were ın the cereal. So ıts not just pet food. I dıd take ıt back next day and they asked dıd ı want another box. Needless to say ı declıned.

[snd1966]

.If you have never experienced meal moths they are very difficult to get rid of once you get them in your house .

Years ago we had them arrive in the dog food, I wish i had binned it but advised the dog's stomach would cope with the larvae but my kitchen cupboards and my clothes did not do as well. The house had to be thoroughly cleaned, grains, pasta and flours thrown away and it took about 6 months to finally eradicate them.

The first sign we noticed they had hatched and left the food were in the cupboards was like cobwebs with no spiders

[sophie]

Check your pasta, flour, cereal, bread, biscuits. It may not be the fault of the store you bought from, but when push comes to shove, they sold it to you. I've been to the storage areas at the rear of some of the supermarkets here and amazed the situation isn't worse than it is, not only for meal moths but other unsavoury animals and insects. I know they can get into plastic containers, but if you look around, some of the containers are more sealant that others. Helps keep the b+++++y mini ants out as well.

[mrsgee]

We had an infestation of the flour weevil things, arrived in a packet of pasta which we had bought from Alphamega. Didn't realise til it was too late and the cupboards were full of the horrible little black beetles. I first noticed really when I spotted a few little tiny moth type things. Then on checking the cupboards found hundreds of the black weevils. Apparently, they live in rice, flour, pasta, have eaten into packets of soup, stock cubes..... you name it they go for it. I now keep everything in airtight containers, and stocks of rice, flour, pasta, I store in the fridge. Took weeks to finally get rid of the things. Apparently the female lays hundreds of eggs in crevices so you don't see them til they hatch out. Have had them in a bag of pet food too in the past. I think they particularly like basmati rice, so I always rinse my rice before using it, they float to the top if you cover it with water. Horrible things.

[alphamike]

Freeze flour, grains, pasta for 4 days. This stops any eggs already there from hatching, and then keep things in sealed containers. The only thing that I don't freeze is dried dog food, as the bag is way too big to go in the freezer but kept in a sealed container, I never want to have to go through an infestation in the kitchen again.

[Bonnie]

Follow alphamikes advice he/she was of great support to me when I was going through a weevil infestation the summer before last.
I was beside myself struggled for weeks but eventually got clear of them
.Forever grateful for the advice & support I received from alphamike

[alphamike]

Thank you for your kind words Bonnie, I had forgotten all about that. Am so glad that it worked out for you.

[fincho]

I went in and they asked for the packet to refund me but of course I've thrown it away.They seemed to miss the point in that they said it was a supplier problem but its going to be their problem if they dont sort their storage area out and they will have problems with their dry stock as these moths eat through plastic and cardboard with ease.Out of interest I bought another bag of Oscar cat biscuits and they were full of larvae as well.Sharwoods poppodums also had them in so whether the problem originated elsewhere makes no different to these Insects.

My advice to keep packaging as they will refund.

[sophie]

On top of the freezing business, remember they can't bite their way through glass containers and I'm slowly converting to them. Handy also for the b++++++y tiny weeny spiders.

[alphamike]

Absolutely Sophie, the same here, got a lot of stuff in glass jars. Bulkier items are in good quality lock containers, the ones with rubber seal, and they seem to do the trick. Once had oats in one and eggs hatched, they couldn't get out and infest anything else. I used to only freeze flour, but now it's rice, lentils, oats, pasta, any dried foodstuffs really, straight from supermarket into freezer, then put into containers after 4 days, or longer if I forget.