What are these and how do i get rid of them? They keep appearing on the ceiling crawling away from the kitchen, so i assume they are coming from the kitchen/food.
I’ve already emptied and cleaned the trash, pantry, sink and every drawer twice and they keep appearing. Keep in mind i have a very clean appartment, vacuuming twice a week, mopping once a week and always clean my kitchen with disinfectants in the evening. I live on the 10th floor of an appartment building and the only plant i have in the appartment, is a potted basil plant, which i’ve switched twice already. Anyone have the same issue?
Mehlmottenlarven, they’ll be coming from some food. Likely flour, oats, anything similar and dry. You need to check all your food thoroughly.
food moths, Lebensmittelmotten. Lots of tips on reddit, even in this subreddit we had a couple of threads recently. Check things like open rice bags, cereals, tea boxes, spices, flour.. look for sth that looks like tiny spiderwebs in your food, then you’ll know
Looks like meal worms… Can’t exactly tell you where they come from but I’ve had the same problem in my new flat, cleaned everything only to find some flour/dirt/food rests behind the fridge, and under the kitchen counter that was covered with a removable wood plank. That’s where they came from, sprayed everything with bleach, changed all my flours,rice and dried grains in storage and never had the issue again
A Redditor found this in their kitchen, when they asked about it, the police was called immediately.
I assume you have all your perishables in tightly sealed containers such as Lock-n-Lock ~~or from IKEA 365+~~. Specially any flour, nuts, oat flakes and other flakes, pasta, rice, etc. Also all your spices are in closed containers and not in bags.
So, what is missing? Something must have fallen behind a not so easily reachable spot.
Also nothing to do with how clean your apartment is. They come with a product that is infested. Zero waste shops are unfortunately a problem, but my local reform shop also had them (I never went back). They are a pain to get rid off. I threw away tons of food, covered every hole and crevice in the kitchen with painter’s tape etc etc. Took almost a year till I stopped seeing any.
If you find food with webs, probably everything in the cupboard can go. They eat through cardboard and plastic packaging so not much is safe.
You just have to be on watch all the time once you have an infestation. For a while my morning routine was searching for these as they always came out at night.
Maggots/Larvae.
Theoretically could be from different insects, it’s probably hard to tell 100% just from those blurry pictures unless you’re an insect specialist.
The larvae of the house fly and the flour moth look quite similar for example. From the picture I’d tend to flour moth.
Check your cupboards, especially things like flour, rice, pasta etc. If you find some “weave” somewhere in your food, you have a flour moth infestation.
Be aware that those larvae can “drill” through carton and soft/thin plastic packaging. So having your food in closed “original packaging” doesn’t keep them away, you also have to check unopened packages of rice, pasta etc.
I always fill my rice, pasta, flour etc. into containers made of glass or thick plastic.
Oh, and if you see moths flying around: kill them before they lay more eggs 😉
There are also glue traps that attract them (the moths, not the larvae). You can buy them almost everywhere.
Check under the kitchen, there is always a protection you can clip off. There, yes there is always, always!! Some rest of food you didn’t clean laying around.
So everyone basically said already that they come from food.
You should also look for thin “nets” in your food and throw it away immediatly.
Those things are crawling to the ceiling because they wanna turn into moths, if you see them you can kill them and if you have moths in your apartement I would advise you to buy moth traps and set them up where your food is (from coop, spar, they are available in every grocery store I think).
To prevent having that problem again you should store your food in cabinets (so it isn’t staying out in the open), always close packages with rubberbands!! Or the most effective thing is: store all your dry food (rice, pasta, flour, powders) in glass containers (you can purchase them online).
I had the same problem in my WG but they are all gone now. 🙂
Literally throw all your food away that you have stored, clean that shit VERY WELL (food storage room/pantry), buy sticky moth traps full of pheromones and pray.
Ah, check also above you for those little fuckers crawling on the ceiling.
I had a similar situation in my food cupboard. I put each package of food (rice, flour, pasta etc) in an individual plastic bag (Einwegsäckli v. Coop) and knotted them. I then cleaned the cupboard thoroughly and put everything back. Within 24 hours, one of the plastic bags was absolutely SEETHING with little bugs. I tossed that bag with the foodstuff (was risotto) in the garbage, waited another 24 hrs. to see if any other bugs popped out (they didn’t), removed the foods from the plastic bags and have been bug-free ever since
RIP
Oh man, there was a colony of these in an apartment I moved into once, they’d nested in the little holes inside cupboards where you can adjust the heights of shelves so hadn’t gone along with the previous tenant and their food. I didn’t realise for months and by that time they were in sooo much of my food. I spent a very enjoyable weekend going through my whole food cupboard and chucking loads away. I actually did – I realised how unsalvageable the situation was and put on a good audiobook to accompany the devastation.
Free proteine add-on to flur you need it in winter. But don’t wait too long or they will fly away.
Delicious. From 2023 on they can put them into our food (EU) without declaration. So try them out. Pasta noodles with extra protein.
From now all, all of your dried food outside the fridge needs be stored in big glass sealed jars. If you bring home food in packaging, assume after a week that it has eggs on the outside and soon the larva will hatch and eat its way through the plastic/paper and into the food inside, grow to a moth to either die in there or fly out when you open it. Better to dump all new dried food in glass jars with sealed screw-on sealed metal lid. Think pickle jar, bigger if you can find them. Tupperware is near worthless, they somehow wiggling through the cracks.
Check all ceiling corners in your home, wipe away casings you find there with paper towel wet with acidic vinegar essence that they won’t lay there again.
DM has reasonably effective glue traps which attract males. There are fewer moths in winter, so make certain you have traps up now before they really start impregnating females warmer months, flying out your windows and infecting your neighbor’s kitchens. Get one of those electric fly swatters to kill grown moths out of the air and off your lampshades or wherever.
All current flour, rice, tea, etc. is suspect, check for webbing inside when you dump in glass jars. All thrown out should be sealed in closed bags so they don’t fly in other’s windows.
oh you poor lad
i’ve had to deal with those two times in one year. you might have to end up having to throw away almost all dried goods (flour, rice, crackers, nuts, etc) and you’ll have to clean your whole kitchen in all nooks and crannies. contaminated foods with nests kinda look like they have very fine spiderwebs all over them.
i did that, but they came back after a while. i found out they were nesting in the little holes in the cupboards, those holes where you can customize shelf height. i had to clean and desinfect dozens of these holes with q-tips.
now i always make sure to store everything completely sealed, i mostly use the clips from ikea or glass tupperware with a proper seal.
You have already been given a lot of useful advice. Once you have removed anything that might be a point of origin and start buying back flours, rice etc, run the new products through the freezer for 24h.
Holy hand grenade
I have a new nightmare now reading the comments
Eat them
eat them
gives me PTSD
Reading this thread gave me anxiety, so I went ahead and taped all the shelf holes in my pantry, and also added a fresh taped moth trap
Run, you fool!
Put every nut, spice, dried fruit, flour, and pasta into your freezer for 24 hours after bringing it home. Freezers kill these.
Check the little holes wo support the shelves in your kitchen fourniture
Both of them together, and maybe even an electric racket if you see moths during the next weeks.
Went through that recently. The person at the store said they were coming strong this year hahaha.
They hate lavender. Both food and cloth moths. Back in my uni times, I got rid of those by buying lavender essential oils and soaking some cloths/papers around the room.
30 comments
What are these and how do i get rid of them? They keep appearing on the ceiling crawling away from the kitchen, so i assume they are coming from the kitchen/food.
I’ve already emptied and cleaned the trash, pantry, sink and every drawer twice and they keep appearing. Keep in mind i have a very clean appartment, vacuuming twice a week, mopping once a week and always clean my kitchen with disinfectants in the evening. I live on the 10th floor of an appartment building and the only plant i have in the appartment, is a potted basil plant, which i’ve switched twice already. Anyone have the same issue?
Mehlmottenlarven, they’ll be coming from some food. Likely flour, oats, anything similar and dry. You need to check all your food thoroughly.
food moths, Lebensmittelmotten. Lots of tips on reddit, even in this subreddit we had a couple of threads recently. Check things like open rice bags, cereals, tea boxes, spices, flour.. look for sth that looks like tiny spiderwebs in your food, then you’ll know
Looks like meal worms… Can’t exactly tell you where they come from but I’ve had the same problem in my new flat, cleaned everything only to find some flour/dirt/food rests behind the fridge, and under the kitchen counter that was covered with a removable wood plank. That’s where they came from, sprayed everything with bleach, changed all my flours,rice and dried grains in storage and never had the issue again
A Redditor found this in their kitchen, when they asked about it, the police was called immediately.
I assume you have all your perishables in tightly sealed containers such as Lock-n-Lock ~~or from IKEA 365+~~. Specially any flour, nuts, oat flakes and other flakes, pasta, rice, etc. Also all your spices are in closed containers and not in bags.
So, what is missing? Something must have fallen behind a not so easily reachable spot.
Also nothing to do with how clean your apartment is. They come with a product that is infested. Zero waste shops are unfortunately a problem, but my local reform shop also had them (I never went back). They are a pain to get rid off. I threw away tons of food, covered every hole and crevice in the kitchen with painter’s tape etc etc. Took almost a year till I stopped seeing any.
If you find food with webs, probably everything in the cupboard can go. They eat through cardboard and plastic packaging so not much is safe.
You just have to be on watch all the time once you have an infestation. For a while my morning routine was searching for these as they always came out at night.
Maggots/Larvae.
Theoretically could be from different insects, it’s probably hard to tell 100% just from those blurry pictures unless you’re an insect specialist.
The larvae of the house fly and the flour moth look quite similar for example. From the picture I’d tend to flour moth.
Check your cupboards, especially things like flour, rice, pasta etc. If you find some “weave” somewhere in your food, you have a flour moth infestation.
Be aware that those larvae can “drill” through carton and soft/thin plastic packaging. So having your food in closed “original packaging” doesn’t keep them away, you also have to check unopened packages of rice, pasta etc.
I always fill my rice, pasta, flour etc. into containers made of glass or thick plastic.
Oh, and if you see moths flying around: kill them before they lay more eggs 😉
There are also glue traps that attract them (the moths, not the larvae). You can buy them almost everywhere.
Check under the kitchen, there is always a protection you can clip off. There, yes there is always, always!! Some rest of food you didn’t clean laying around.
So everyone basically said already that they come from food.
You should also look for thin “nets” in your food and throw it away immediatly.
Those things are crawling to the ceiling because they wanna turn into moths, if you see them you can kill them and if you have moths in your apartement I would advise you to buy moth traps and set them up where your food is (from coop, spar, they are available in every grocery store I think).
To prevent having that problem again you should store your food in cabinets (so it isn’t staying out in the open), always close packages with rubberbands!! Or the most effective thing is: store all your dry food (rice, pasta, flour, powders) in glass containers (you can purchase them online).
I had the same problem in my WG but they are all gone now. 🙂
Literally throw all your food away that you have stored, clean that shit VERY WELL (food storage room/pantry), buy sticky moth traps full of pheromones and pray.
Ah, check also above you for those little fuckers crawling on the ceiling.
I had a similar situation in my food cupboard. I put each package of food (rice, flour, pasta etc) in an individual plastic bag (Einwegsäckli v. Coop) and knotted them. I then cleaned the cupboard thoroughly and put everything back. Within 24 hours, one of the plastic bags was absolutely SEETHING with little bugs. I tossed that bag with the foodstuff (was risotto) in the garbage, waited another 24 hrs. to see if any other bugs popped out (they didn’t), removed the foods from the plastic bags and have been bug-free ever since
RIP
Oh man, there was a colony of these in an apartment I moved into once, they’d nested in the little holes inside cupboards where you can adjust the heights of shelves so hadn’t gone along with the previous tenant and their food. I didn’t realise for months and by that time they were in sooo much of my food. I spent a very enjoyable weekend going through my whole food cupboard and chucking loads away. I actually did – I realised how unsalvageable the situation was and put on a good audiobook to accompany the devastation.
Free proteine add-on to flur you need it in winter. But don’t wait too long or they will fly away.
Delicious. From 2023 on they can put them into our food (EU) without declaration. So try them out. Pasta noodles with extra protein.
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianmeal_moth](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Indianmeal_moth)
From now all, all of your dried food outside the fridge needs be stored in big glass sealed jars. If you bring home food in packaging, assume after a week that it has eggs on the outside and soon the larva will hatch and eat its way through the plastic/paper and into the food inside, grow to a moth to either die in there or fly out when you open it. Better to dump all new dried food in glass jars with sealed screw-on sealed metal lid. Think pickle jar, bigger if you can find them. Tupperware is near worthless, they somehow wiggling through the cracks.
Check all ceiling corners in your home, wipe away casings you find there with paper towel wet with acidic vinegar essence that they won’t lay there again.
DM has reasonably effective glue traps which attract males. There are fewer moths in winter, so make certain you have traps up now before they really start impregnating females warmer months, flying out your windows and infecting your neighbor’s kitchens. Get one of those electric fly swatters to kill grown moths out of the air and off your lampshades or wherever.
All current flour, rice, tea, etc. is suspect, check for webbing inside when you dump in glass jars. All thrown out should be sealed in closed bags so they don’t fly in other’s windows.
oh you poor lad
i’ve had to deal with those two times in one year. you might have to end up having to throw away almost all dried goods (flour, rice, crackers, nuts, etc) and you’ll have to clean your whole kitchen in all nooks and crannies. contaminated foods with nests kinda look like they have very fine spiderwebs all over them.
i did that, but they came back after a while. i found out they were nesting in the little holes in the cupboards, those holes where you can customize shelf height. i had to clean and desinfect dozens of these holes with q-tips.
now i always make sure to store everything completely sealed, i mostly use the clips from ikea or glass tupperware with a proper seal.
You have already been given a lot of useful advice. Once you have removed anything that might be a point of origin and start buying back flours, rice etc, run the new products through the freezer for 24h.
Holy hand grenade
I have a new nightmare now reading the comments
Eat them
eat them
gives me PTSD
Reading this thread gave me anxiety, so I went ahead and taped all the shelf holes in my pantry, and also added a fresh taped moth trap
Run, you fool!
Put every nut, spice, dried fruit, flour, and pasta into your freezer for 24 hours after bringing it home. Freezers kill these.
Check the little holes wo support the shelves in your kitchen fourniture
https://www.biogarten.ch/de/bio-haushalt/gegen-motten
Thank me later
Besides changing to air tight containers, buy these:
https://www.biogarten.ch/de/nuetzlinge/gegen-motten?gclid=Cj0KCQiAsdKbBhDHARIsANJ6-jftTh-D5UH8BGjaE4H0M_kL6Epjqsms7ZoNc8kuleSuHS-9lIbK0ukaAhUaEALw_wcB
And also these:
https://www.puravita.ch/de_ch/aeroxon-lebensmittelmotten-fallen-2-stueck?sales_channel=eyJzYWxlc19jaGFubmVsX2NvZGUiOiJnb29nbGUtc2hvcHBpbmciLCJwcm9kdWN0X3NrdSI6IjI5MzA3ODU2MjgiLCJzYWxlc19jaGFubmVsX3ByaWNlIjo3fQ==&gclid=CjwKCAiA2rOeBhAsEiwA2Pl7Q3wt70uXNitwMVlJnh6rY_nwgZV3H4VsArK9UuaNCSVjgP3wTMEsShoCjMcQAvD_BwE
https://www.galaxus.ch/en/s4/product/finito-food-moth-trap-animal-trap-19602478?dbq=1&gclid=CjwKCAiA2rOeBhAsEiwA2Pl7QzpCIFmhA0JBgCrg6HrW3JN0tAKPLDp1uC_VzKEDzc5APtEg4xj_NRoCpUwQAvD_BwE&gclsrc=aw.ds
Both of them together, and maybe even an electric racket if you see moths during the next weeks.
Went through that recently. The person at the store said they were coming strong this year hahaha.
They hate lavender. Both food and cloth moths. Back in my uni times, I got rid of those by buying lavender essential oils and soaking some cloths/papers around the room.