Sevin, Carbaryl, is quite toxic and is not meant to be used in the house. Nothing I have ever found about controlling grain, pantry, or Indian moths has ever recommended spraying with Carbaryl inside the house. As long as the adult moths can mate and lay eggs in a food source, grains, flour, cereals, etc. they will be present. One method of control is to put these materials in a 155 degree oven for 20 to 30 minutes, which will kill any eggs and larva as well as any adults. Another method of control is to place these items in the freezer until they are to be used, and put them back when no longer being used. kimmq is kimmsr

The plastic containers won't do it. Heavy duty hard plastic with screw tight lids might work, and the same for glass. A friend of mine had a major pantry infestation and we found the larvae in her peanut butter!!!! With the lid on tight. Place your teas in a zip lock bag and observe for signs of the adults or larvae. Personally, I think that tea would not be safe. Clean out any pet food, bird seed, spices, even potpourri and craft supplies, pine cones, etc. Do a major cleaning to get rid of the little cocoons that you will find in the nooks and crannies of the house...and not just in the kitchen! I found an infestation in my bedroom closet, where I kept a couple of (closed and not used) bags of that fancy potpourri that had been given me. I had been planning on 're-gifting', lol!!! I've heard good things about pantry pest traps (non chemical), and suggest you investigate them. Once you get rid of the adults, freeze food items for a few days before introducing them back into the pantry. And storage in the 'fridge is a good idea, too.

I'm inundated with those stupid moths too. Usually, every time I bring ANYTHING grain related home, I immediately put it in the freezer for 24 hrs to make sure any and all critters eggs are dead. (used to be just weevils, now it's those stupid moths) Most of those critters come in the food from the manufacturer. I too was on the austerity program and had to purchase food from the food bank. Usually, if I DO see any critters in a bag, I put it in the freezer before putting it in the trash. I went to open a box/inner bag of cereal and it was loaded with those nasty moths. I just threw the bag in the trash and I have regretted not putting it in the freezer ever since. They are an infestation now. I took everything out of my pantry and put it in the freezer THEN I threw them out. I put borax,which does kill them, all around my pantry left it closed for a few days then vacuumed the dead moths out & now the pantry is free of moths. I thought AWESOME!!! the fight is over or so I thought. Then I went into my coat closet and just happened to look up & there were about 20 of the cocoons in there. I took my broom and squashed & swept them all away. (BTW: I have one of those broom & dustpan kits where the broom fits into the dustpan & clips onto the handle. I put borax in the dustpan, so if the moths or cocoons are still alive after sweeping & squishing them, it will kill them, which it does). I was seeing baby moths flying all over. Since I saw the cocoons in the 1 closet, I decided to look in the ceiling of the rest of my closets. There were some in the linen closet. Then I went into the spare bedroom, to check the closet in there (which we keep the a/c vent partially closed and the lights off.) I almost had a heart attack. There must have been 100 of those cocoons hanging all around the edges of the ceiling and in the closet. There was no way I was going to be able to get all of them without dragging the ladder in & sweeping/squishing all of them. Well, I said all this to say: Is there anything I can just spray up there & kill all the moth cocoons before they hatch? I was thinking about using wasp spray, the stuff that shoots 20 feet. It says on the can that it also kills caterpillars. Which turn into butterflies. Moths are the devils version of butterflies. Butterflies are harmless and beautiful. Moths are ugly and very harmful. "Don't store up treasures here on earth where MOTHS and rust corrupts... Any comments?

Does anyone have knowledge about the life cycle of these Indian Meal Moths? I'm not sure if I still have a problem, or if I'm just seeing residual pests. In May, I would see 1 moth per day fluttering around the glow of the TV set each night. After a week of this, I learned that these were indian meal moths that needed to be eradicated. So, on 5/25, I found a plastic bag of dried chilies on my top shelf that was infested. I can stomach most anything, but seeing this made me gag a bit. Through the plastic I could see a gooey mess of larvae and moths walking around inside. Needless to say, I triple-bagged the chilies in plastic before triple-bagging that in garbage bags. This was the only infestation. We only have 2 cupboards of dried goods, with very limited product. The shelves were cleaned, the food was inspected, etc. and all looks fine. Upon further inspection, we did not find any webbing, cocoons or anything similar in any corners anywhere. After discarding the infested chilies on May 25, it took several days before we saw another one. Since that time through July 4, we saw and killed about 25 moths in those following 40 or so days (I track this on a spreadsheet - the date, location & # of moths in an attempt to find their habits!!). On the morning of July 4, I saw my first quarter-inch long, white "caterpillar" crawling up the inside door of the cupboard that originally had the infestation. But, since the infestation was discarded more than a month earlier, that cupboard has only had canned food in it. It had been cleaned several times and there are no signs of droppings, webbing, etc. The next day (July 5) I bought my first Pantry Pest trap and set it on the counter by the cupboard. That night, although no moth was trapped, I spotted and annihilated 4 moths hanging out on the wall in the kitchen. Keep in mind that I have never seen more than one at a time since the first infestation. My guess is that the pheromones from that trap were working. Yesterday, July 6, I spotted 3 more on the wall near the trap and killed them. This morning, July 7, my wife spotted and killed 2 more. As of this post (8:00PM CST), I have not seen a moth. Since throwing out that infested bag on May 25, I have seen no other infestation. We have cleaned and inspected the limited goods we have stored, and they all check out. We have cleaned behind/under the fridge and stove several times. There really is no food source because, frankly, we don't keep a lot of food here. So, my questions are: Have the moths I've been seeing since I threw out the infested bag of chilies at the end of May just leftover moths from that original "litter"? How long do they survive? Did the caterpillar I recently saw crawling up the cupboard door come from an egg that slipped through the cracks from the original infestation and just hatched? How long do eggs take to hatch? Again, I have spotted no cocoons, webs or anything. Again, am I fighting residual pests or is there a new infestation? I honestly can't find anything anywhere, or even a hint of an infestation, which makes me think these are the last of the original lot. But, I just don't know. Help!