How do I get these moths out of my house, before calling a pest control?
Question:I'm more than positive the moths I'm finding in my cupboards are called Meal Moths. They're laying eggs in everything and I'm finding larvae inside my drawers and cupboards. Is there anything I can do to get rid of them before I call a pest control?
Answers:
Indian haveMeal Moth's can be one of the toughest pests to eliminate. The larvae breeds in material such as flour, cereal, dog food etc..1. Go through the pantry and try to find out where the breeding is occuring and throw out the problem material. (this is the most important step...make sure to look in all areas that have bird seed, dog food, flour, cereal etc..2. clean out the pantry area and thoroughly washdown the area. 3. You can purchase pheromone traps for Indian meal moths which will attract the male moths. They really don't help eliminate the problem but will give you a good gauge of when the problem is really eliminated.
Adult Indian meal moths usually live for about a week but the larvae thats pupated recently could be in hidden cracks and/or crevices of the home and will reinfest if all food sourced haven't been eliminated. (you can apply cetain pesticides in crack and crevices in the home but I would recommend that you don't apply anything in the pantry because it usually doesn't have any effect). This is why it's so important to make sure that the house is as clean as possible at all times and all food/grain materials are protected from these moths during the pupal stage plus 1-2 weeks (the adult stage). If you haven't seen any signs of moths on your pheromone traps for a month to a month and 1/2 than you have probably solved your problem. If you have any questions please feel free to email me at barry@zebrapest.com I will post information on Indian Meal moths on my website at http://www.zebrapest.com Unfortunately I won't be able to do that for a few weeks so feel free to email me.
Good Luck.
I feel for you!! I had a problem with these little pests last year. I had to clean out my cabinets and throw everything away. Then, I cleaned them out with bleach water. They are very hard to get rid of. They can live under furniture, in closets, etc. It took me 3 solid months of killing them. If I were you, I wouldn't mess with it. Call pest control. It'll save you time and your sanity.!! Good luck with this.!
p.s. it helps to keep flour in the refridgerator, and other baking mixes also.
They eat wheat based foods. Throw it all away and they will die off.
Get some Raid Fogger or Hoy Shot Fogger; Open all drawers and cabinets , set off the bug bombs and go to a movie or the mall for a few hours, come home and open everything up to air it out. Turn off any gas, air conditioners, water heaters etc before fogging. You may have to do this about a week or two apart to kill off any larvae that hatched. We got rid of fruit flies and roaches this way. Good Luck.
They are a naturally occuring phenomenon in cereals, flour, rice, etc. The eggs hatch and moths appear. Your best defence is to use these types of items up in a reasonable amount of time, otherwise keep them in the refrigerator.
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