How to Get Rid of Small Moths in the Food Pantry

The small moths that sometimes infest food storage areas usually arrive in your kitchen as nearly invisible eggs with dry products like cornmeal, cereal, rice and flour. Those that you don't eat before they hatch soon make themselves known as visible larvae, noteworthy for building webs and encouraging mold in your food. There are three main varieties of what we call pantry moths: the Indian meal moth, the Mediterranean flour moth and the Angoumois grain moth. They are surprisingly easy to remove—and permanently banish—from your kitchen, using only nontoxic crystalline powders.

Things You'll Need

• Thick plastic trash bags
• Cleaning supplies
• Stiff-bristle 1-inch paintbrush or similar
• Food-grade diatomaceous earth or powdered boric acid
• Sealable containers

Instructions

Take Control

1. Empty out all your kitchen and pantry cupboards—dishes and canned goods, too—and discard any infested foods, or foods suspected to be infested. This could include bulk and packaged grain products—ground grains, like cornmeal, and processed products, like macaroni.

2. Put all discarded products into thick plastic bags and dispose of them well away from anyone's kitchen. The cans and dishes can be wiped down and set aside.

3. Perform a brisk "spring cleaning" of your entire kitchen and pantry. Wash storage containers, vacuum and wipe down cupboards and counters, sweep and mop, and hand dry inside the cupboards. All trash and sweepings, including the vacuum bag, should go into thick plastic bags for immediate removal.

4. Use the small brush to push boric acid powder or diatomaceous earth into all cracks and crevices inside and outside cupboards, along baseboards and under/around appliances. The idea is to have the powder in the path of any insect that tries to travel into food storage areas. These crystalline powders will remain in cracks and crevices so long as they are kept dry.

5. Put everything back in the cupboards, first placing noninfested foods into sealable plastic and glass containers. These foods will remain safe from contamination by any adult moths that may be left. These remaining adult moths will soon die of old age—childless, we hope.

Keep a Lid on It

1. Place all newly purchased foods into sealable containers as soon as they are brought home to maintain control of future infestations. Foods will be protected from egg-laying adults and any infested foods you inadvertently bring home will be isolated from other food.

2. Replace boric acid or diatomaceous earth whenever cupboards are washed out with water. These nontoxic crystalline powders scratch the exoskeletons of insects that crawl through them, causing the insects to dehydrate and die. The powders are durable until they come in contact with water.

3. Clean or vacuum up all spilled dry goods as soon as the spill occurs to continue to deny adult moths a place to lay their eggs.

Tips & Warnings

• This regime will also keep ants, cockroaches and other food pests at bay—especially if the powder is applied to spaces around plumbing, electrical outlets, and doors and windows.

• Use only food-grade diatomaceous earth in a food preparation area. D.E. compounds for other uses, such as the yard and garden, contain additives that may be undesirable in a kitchen.

References

• Do-It-Yourself Pest Control: Pantry Pests
• Keys to Moth Management
• University of California: Pantry Pest Management

Resources

• Pantry Moth Traps