So, the other day I’m groovin’ along in the kitchen hoping to surprise The Boy with a homemade batch of Oatmeal Cookies. As I was cleaning up, I noticed the flour container was getting low enough to add that bag of flour I had just grabbed at Winco. But, when I went to unwrap the top of the paper packaging (yes, that’s as far as I could mentally bring myself to go, the under flap of the paper packaging! Lord only knows what I would have seen inside the bag! LOL), what to my OCD eyes did appear?! YEP. After all my homemaking years, I finally came across my worst nightmare.

(Okay, probably not the worst. There was that studio apartment I rented downtown that had a major cockroach infestation. Oh, and that one place I lived in while at University that had ants all over every other week even after exterminator treatments. Oh, and our house that was being taken over with Black Widow spiders. But I digress.)

If you have any sort of OCD or suffer from the heebie-jeebies, you feel me on this: it was a nightmare discovery and I was thoroughly skeeved out. Trust that.

After I considered gutting this place and fleeing for the hills, I did some quick Google research: apparently those nasty little bugs found in flour are a type of tiny beetle called weevils. (“We Evil”. Seriously the best name for a bug yet.) They can be found at pantry buffets across the world munching on flour, cereal, nuts, pasta, coffee, dry pet food, oats, cookies, wheat, rye, rice, corn, biscuits, baking mixes, barley, various seeds, beans, corn meal, grits, crackers……basically anything grain-based. Lovely, right? But, wait! It gets better.

These suckers are already in the flour when you buy it. Yup. It’s like a hidden cereal surprise, except getting some lick-on tattoos would probably be much cooler than a bag of cootie bugs. You see, Mama Weevil uses her snout to drill a bitty hole in the wheat casings and then she safely tucks her Wittle Bitty Weevil Babies away inside and seals up the hole with some homemade glue. So precious. Somehow these eggs survive the milling process and will eventually hatch in a few days if the flour has not been used already, or if it has been sitting in a warm or humid area. The larvae will hang out and just munch on whatever is around for a month or so.

So, there ya go. The little devils, I mean, baby weevils are hiding in plain sight just waiting for the perfect time to jump out and scare the OCD outta ya. And, since a single female weevil can lay up to 400 eggs, well, you do the math.

There are some folks (The Husband for one) that are in the “suck it up buttercup and just eat it” camp, “Meh, when I was a kid my mom would just sift them out and blah blah blah blah…” Yah. No.

Yes, I totally get it. I probably have eaten these nasty things loads of times and not known it (don’t give me the stink eye, you have too! 😉 ), seeing that the grains are basically tiny little incubators and are not detectable and they are likely to be in everything in the pantry, still. Ugh. It’s definitely a lot easier to stomach that thought when you aren’t aware what’s going down. Broccoli anyone?!

Yes, they are harmless. Yes, they are killed in the cooking process. “Insect protein.” Barf. You can try using a flour sifter small enough to remove the visible weevils, but just know you have probably already gobbled down a few hundred thousand eggs or some tasty bits of exoskeletons or even some full-grown weevil nuggets.

So, let’s get proactive here.  There are some steps you can take to get this weevil ridiculousness under control.

• Freeze flour or other grains as soon as you bring them home from the market. You can seal the package inside a freezer bag and put it in the freezer for four days (yes, it will take 4 days!). The freezing will kill off any eggs or weevils that are already in the flour. Remove and then store as usual.
• Use heat to kill them off. Place the flour in the oven at 130ºF for half an hour or 120ºF for one hour.
• Proper Storage. Make the grain buffet a little harder to access. Store pantry staples in sealed glass jars (I like these plastic Rubbermaid Modular Canisters as it makes the most use of shelf space) and that should stop any cross contamination. Plus, it makes your pantry or counter tops look a little more organized and clutter free.

• Place a dried bay leaf in food containers. You can also scatter a few bay leaves around inside the cabinet or pantry shelves to discourage future infestations. Wiping the shelves with eucalyptus oil or tea tree oil may also help.
• Use food staples regularly. Leaving items like flour in the pantry for too long will just encourage those buggers to keep on eating and breeding. The faster you can use it up (and the fresher the item is) the better. Buy only the amounts you know you’ll use within a month or two (stop and give a second thought to that awesome deal on 50 lb. bags of flour at Costco if you rarely bake outside of holidays). Rotate food items as you shop so that you’re always using older products first, and try not to mix old food with new.
• Clean the cupboards and pantry regularly. Don’t wait for spring to tackle cleaning out the pantry or cupboards, maybe get in there every couple of months and clean stuff out. If there is a spill, clean it up thoroughly as soon as possible. Seal cracks or gaps in shelves with caulk to keep spilled food items from getting trapped.

And finally, if you are hit with an infestation, move.  Okay, you don’t have to move, but you need to get moving on Operation Weevil Wobble and knock those suckers down.

• If you discover an infestation flap your hands, jump back and say “Gross. Gross. Gross.” a couple hundred times, roll your eyes, stamp your foot – basically do whatever you have to do to get the heebie-jeebies out. Then breathe. Although super gross, weevils do not bite, sting, or otherwise cause physical harm. Emotional stress and a raise in anxiety levels? You betcha. But they’re not gonna kung fu kick ya when you’re down and now it’s time to get crackin’.
• Remove all food items (along with everything else) from the cabinet or pantry.
• Return flour if you notice weevils only a few weeks after buying it.
• Throw away all contaminated food and anything that may be suspect. Check the flour, sugar, grains, dried beans, pasta, cereals, etc. for signs of those evil weevils.
• Do not throw away contaminated food in the kitchen trash. Take it outside and toss it in the big cans and then move the can as far away from the house as possible. If you live in an apartment, walk it to the dumpster instead of leaving it by the front door. You do not want to give those creepers a chance to come crawling back into your life like that one guy in 1987.
• Remove contact paper and discard. Look for any weevils that may be lurking underneath. You can reline with new paper after the deep cleaning.
• Thoroughly wipe/scrub down all shelves with hot soapy water and a good disinfectant or bleach. Be sure to get into all the little corners and crevices as well as the nooks and the crannies where spilled bits of food may have gone. If you vacuum the shelves (which is not a bad idea), be sure to empty the bag outside and dump it in the trash can. Wash all food storage containers too.
• Repeat the steps listed above for proper pantry storage.

photo source