PantRy Moths

I inadvertently posted on Facebook that I was fighting panty moths...boy did I open myself up to some friendly ribbing. Yeah, funny.

Not so funny is dealing with these pesky critters (the pantry variety, of course). Somehow, over a year ago, we became hosts to some cute little moths. Little did I know that much later, these unwelcome guests would just not leave!

My house is not immaculate, but we are not total slobs, and I really insist on a clean kitchen. Surfing the web a year ago, I found no information about these pests, but last weekend, I found lots of posts about them. Mostly, I find that their presence has nothing to do with how clean (or not clean) you keep your house and kitchen. It all depends on how you treat food items entering your home, namely grains.

But first, you want to rid your home of the critters already visiting. Off and on, I've emptied out cupboards, wiped everything down, and thrown out a lot of food. I've even taken a toothpick to scrape the nasty larva from the holes drilled into my pantry shelving. Gross!

Recently I became the proud owner of a steam machine for cleaning floors and tile. Either my husband or I came up with the brillant idea to put this machine to work to help get rid of the pantry moths. After removing all food from our pantry, and throwing most of that away, I vacuumed out all shelves. Next, I used the steam machine to blast steam into all cracks, crevices, and holes. This caused a lot of gunk to come out of those holes. Did I already say gross? After wiping all this debris away, I used the steamer with a flat head to go over all flat surfaces in hopes of killing any little eggs I could not see. I wiped it all down again, mostly to wipe away moisture. Next, I poured a bit of pennyroyal oil into a throw-away cup and using a Q-tip dipped in the oil, poked the Q-tip into each and every hole and crevice in the pantry. CAUTION: Pennyroyal oil is extremely toxic if you ingest it! I used a throw away cup so that there is no chance of ingesting this stuff. Pennyroyal oil is a natural substance, but even natural substances can kill you. Do not ingest it, nor do you want your pets or kids to get into it.

My reason for using pennyroyal oil is that I hope that this keeps the moths away.

It's been a week since I did this giant job--it took about 12 hours. This week, there have been fewer moths in my house, and they are moving slower. In another week or so, if we have fewer (or no) moths, I am ready to start buying flour and other grains.

Here's what I've read online that I need to do when I bring grains back into the house. First, the product needs to sit in my freezer for at least 24 hours to kill any eggs that may already be inside the packaging--how gross! But if I do this, in theory I should not be bringing more moths into my house.

I hope nobody reading this ever has to wake up to these critters. And I hope my method will work. I'll let you know....