Those little devils are incredibly determined. Years ago I dealt with a similarly stubborn infestation. They will pierce plastic bags, so my guess is in the ziplocs. Cardboard boxes (i.e. cereals) aren't secure either.

Our exterminator recommended sealing all the packages in Tupperware or similar airtight containers. Then when they hatch out they'll head for the surface and whatever air's available. At least then you'll be able to see them and identify the source.

Ugh. I hate those things. It took us forever to clean out and identify the source. I used to think bulk foods were the risk but since then I've heard from a grocer friend about a variety of packaged products with the same problem.

The laundry room is odd, though.

Carol

Oh how I hate those little moths, we had a major problem with them. I think the dang things moved here with us from Ohio. Mine started with some dried flowers and moved on to anything and everything in the pantry that was in a plastic bag or box. They like any dried organic item. In the pantry I found their tiny little cocoons hiding on any right angled surface, ceiling, walls, moldings and packaging creases, inside never opened boxes, etc.

We threw everything away except for canned goods and bottled items...and those we inspected thoroughly. We bought a moth spray and with the pantry empty, we sprayed the pantry and shut the door. Anything we kept was dipped in bleach water. The rest of the kitchen was gone thru...cupboard by cupboard and anything suspect was also pitched. The rest of the house we just looked for any stray tiny cocoons, we found a few but the main spot was the pantry.

Ellen, I had a dried flower gift manufacturing business when I lived in Ohio. One day I opened up a huge box of dried strawflowers and there was a gazillon of those moths in that box. The flowers had come from a grower that claimed to fumigate... I quit using that supplier. But the damage was already done and I'm sure things I moved from Ohio to here the next year must of had some moths somewhere.
That was nine years ago...no problem since. Whenever I see that type of moth, inside, I make sure I dispose of it. They are very common and live everywhere it seems. Outside, birds and spiders try to keep them in check....lol.

Nancy

Buy a big bag of bay leaves....and lay them all over...on the shelves in drawers....generally all around your kitchen.
Soon the cereal moths will be gone...don't know why, don't know how....maybe it's Voo-doo....but it works.
Then until the bay leaf does it's Juju...get some of those glue traps with the attractant to catch those flying around before they mate and lay eggs!
I wonder if fly paper would draw them?
Linda C

I've also found that those buggers love dried flowers and any kind of paper products, doesn't just have to be pantry food or dog food or birdseed .... I use these organic pantry pest traps to try to keep things in check. Good luck!

Cindy

Have had them a couple of times....here is a list and grit your teeth and dump it all:

pasta
dried fruits n.,all kinds
chocolate even boxes of chocolate covered candy
crackers
cereal
dried beans
dried corn
packaged soups with noodles
all grains including rice
cereals
bread crumbs
Paparikas or if that breaks you heart freeze it
chilies (including ristras)
floral potpuries
dried rose

all of these can be inhabited..........
don';t think it is you either
the government allows a certain percentage of (PARTS) in grains and cerceals.and it can be dormant until you give them a happy home and the right temp.
for years now i don't buy any large quanties of these products during the summer... and everything goes in containers......do this cleaning when no one is home and the trash man is coming....then sit down and have some wine or go out for dinner you will be happier the next day in the am...charlotte

Just dealt with this same problem. We tossed the obvious items but the problem persited. I still had them in the cabinet(it's a stand alone) so I finally tossed all the pasta, grain based food items, even if they looked good (in sealed packages), still had them, so I took everything out of the cabinet, and to my dismay found that they had been breeding(?) nesting, multiplying in the holes for the adjustable shelves. Gross, anyhow they're gone now. Think it must be from old items in the back of the cabinet. I will now clean the cabinet out on a monthly basis!

I keep raisins, nuts and the like in the freezer.

I had this problem a while back. I found a container of rice WAY back in a top cupboard that was teaming. I also found a box of Wondra flour that was infested. Corn starch was another source. I dumped and wiped and cleaned and bagged and put lots of things in the freezer that I had been keeping in the cupboard.

Keep it up guys, all good ideas! I'm off to a manicure now,but will check back later on!
BTW I'm pretty sure that they came in with the birdseed DH was storing in the bathroom off of the laundry room during our remodel. My laundry room has the larger pantry and it's just adjacent to the kitchen.Also before we remodeled 5 years ago we had those darn little black ant looking critters that infested everything in the pantry. When we installed new cabs they went away, so i think we're not too late with the new cabs.
The birdseed is now in a covered trash can outside and I'll have to go through the cabinets and dump most of the stuff. Ugh...Those pantry pest traps look great !

My money is on that bird seed!

I found that those critters will be attracted to the slightest bit of spilled flour dust or crumb of something. It's important to keep the shelves and outsides of containers wiped clean.

And all the Jewish girls are laughing at us because in their yearly quest to rid the house of chometz ( anything flour that might not be kosher for passover...that may attrack wild yeast and rise) they also get rid of all the Uggy bug breeding grounds!
Linda C

I agree. We tried discarding selectively, but finally went for mass extermination and threw out everything that wasn't in a bottle or can.

Then we "bombed" the pantry and following that re-painted with an industrial "super-sealer". (It made me feel better about using the space.) I'm guessing there's a lump or two in the paint that's organic, LOL.

Carol

I use those Pantry Pest traps. You can buy them at Home Depot and probably Lowes, Ellen. I buy a bunch of them and put one in every drawer and pantry shelf. I seem to be having a 'bloom' too right now - the traps are full, time to replace them.

I would also freeze incoming foods like flour for a one or two days to kill off hitchhikers.

I got them from dried chilies, which I now store in the freezer for two days. Everything must be in air-tight glass or plastic storage containers. Like Linda, I also spread Bay leaves around - I got a huge amount of Bay leaves at the Indian market. No need to throw anything out (unless you know for sure that it's infected) - just put it in an air-tight container. So many of my things are in glass jars now, which scares me when I think of a possible earthquake, but I really prefer them to plastic. Anyway, I think earthquakes come in 20 or 25 year cycles, and so we shouldn't have another huge one until 2014.

I would not use any bombs or insect sprays around food - Bay leaves should do the trick, along with freezing anything suspect. BTW, they like fish food also.

Lars

This winter grits disappeared from grocery shelves and restaurant suppliers for several months. There was no offical word except that none was available and they didn't know when it would be back in stock. (This was in northern CA.) We had to take it off our menu!

Since in the past I've had to return contaminated boxes of grits I figured somewhere they were empting and cleaning the corn silos!

As someone who pretty well knows corn....
Corn stored in silos is fermented and only used for cattle feet.
Dry corn is stored in "elevators"...or on the ground...I kid you not. Last year there was such a huge crop that they just dumped it into an enormous pile on the ground.
No way they can keep meal moths out of that!!
The contamination comes at the final manufacturing facility....or at the store.
I suspect that's why our grandmothers sifted flour for everything....to sift out the weevles!
Blech!
Linda C

http://images.google.ca/imgres?imgurl=http://www.livingwithbugs.com/Images/mealmoth.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.livingwithbugs.com/mealmoth.html&h=127&w=188&sz=5&hl=en&start=1&tbnid=GO0ah58ZHQiDeM:&tbnh=69&tbnw=102&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dkitchen%2Bmoths%26gbv%3D2%26svnum%3D10%26hl%3Den%26sa%3DG Here's a good website!!!

I had this problem about 20 years ago, hard to get rid of. Cleaned out all cabinets and drawers, under appliances, vacuumed and washed. No longer buy large quantities of anything unless I can store in the freezer, keep ready supplies in glass or tupperware, including dry pastas and mixes. Any grainy foods can bring them in and they will eat right through the packages, in and out. If I can't use things right away, I freeze them at least a couple of days just to be sure. Now that we don't know country of origin, I'm more careful than ever.

Reposting for Diana, link below.

Here is a link that might be useful: Meal moths

I guess I must have struck a chord with this post! I just returned from an evening out and walked into our dressing room/closet and there was one of the li'l buggers sitting on my silk pants! That's the second time I've caught one in the closet and there's not a drop of food up there. In fact the two garments where I've found 'em were freshly cleaned too!

I guess tomorrow or Monday I'm off to Lowes or HD to buy the traps and then start tossing or freezing as I go. Should I buy the bay leaves too?

I had some that evidently came from cornmeal that I got at Kroger. The next time I went there, there were some flying around the aisle. I told customer service. I'm sure I wasn't the only one that had to deal with an "infestation". I bought some of those fly-tape thingys and hung them and caught more than I'd like to admit. It did the job. I still have one hanging 'just in case'. I put bay leaves in a mesh type bag and hung it in my pantry. I haven't seen any since. Good luck.

anotherchris

Well, I can tell you that once a year thorough cleaning for Passover doesn't keep them away. They arrive and multiply faster than that. My DH keeps constant vigilance for them and starts inspecting, throwing out and throwing things into the freezer when he spots a moth. I mentioned the pheromone traps to him but he is concerned that they might attract moths roaming around into our pantry.

We seem to be having less trouble since the kitchen remodel - perhaps because it got rid of some hiding places where eggs were hanging out. Maybe we will try the bay leaves and resort to traps once we see an infestation.

We had them a couple of years ago. They were mostly in the laundry room. We could not find the source. Finally discovered it... The food dehydrator. I mention this because there was a string a while ago and many people here have dehydrator.

Good luck. They are really hard to get rid off. Knock on wood we haven't had any since then.

I certainly understand why many would choose not to use sprays or bombs. We were fortunate because our pantry is not in the kitchen, so we were able to seal off the area.

One thing we did discover in painting - they will lodge below and behind shelves, in pull-out tracks, etc. It isn't just the food itself. I think that's why the final kiss of death for them was our repainting.

I have heard washing down with a vinegar solution is helpful. Bay leaves contain an acid that moths find repellant, but I'm not sure they're enough to keep down a population of the beasts. Sure can't hurt to use them, though, especially in canisters.

After cleaning I started doing what many others are doing. Freezer and then airtight containers.

Carol

I suspect that some of these "critters" come home with you from the grocery store! As soon as you get the product home (such as flours, grains cereals, dry pet foods), put them into air-tight jars or other containers. King Arthur sells pantry moth lures that work very well.

I have a parrot and I get the moths because of the bird seed. The lures kill off the moths as they mature and fly around....the sex lure in the traps must be pretty powerful since the pests make a "bee-line" for the lure in the trap. Shortly thereafter there will be no more to breed and lay eggs....hence, no more moths!

Here is a link that might be useful: Moth Traps

I just got back from Home Depot - if they are out of Pantry Pest traps, you can ask to see if they are somewhere else in the store - SKU 160-154, and they are $5.78 per two traps in a box. I found two boxes waaaaaay up in the rafters, since they were sold out of the ones available on the shelf. Must be moth season.

We had a terrible problem with moths in our last house. Boy was I glad when we moved!! I am sure it began with all the birdseed I kept in the garage. And all the seed was in sealed containers too and I had no problems until about 3 years before we moved. The moths migrated to the house and I cleaned and cleaned and cleaned and we still we had moths. One day I had had enough and started pitching out food even it there was no evidence of moths. I cleaned my cabinets with bleach water and ran all my dishes through the dishwasher. I must have thrown out at least $200+ worth of food but I just could not stand it any longer.

The infestion was worse in corn meal, dry cereal and my flours including Jiffy Mix and any kind of thickening like corn starch or potato starch. YUCK!

Now I keep almost everything and I mean everything in sealed zip lock bags or in tupperware. And the bird seed is in our barn which is far from the house.

I've heard that even bouquets of flowers can be carriers for moths!

Michelle

Been a long time since I've had moths in my pantry, but they almost drove me berserk. They can permeate anything! Good luck; I'm curious about the bay leaves and the traps. Hope they work.

OK, this is slightly OT, but about 30 years ago, my mom, sis and I were visiting older sis and her dh (may he RIP). He was making cornbread for dinner and when he poured the cornmeal into the bowl - it was moving! So, what did he do? Nuked it in the microwave to kill the critters! ICK! Do you think we ate any of that weevil-bread? No way!

Ellen, the bird seed got us. I kept adding to it and the moths were procreating in the bottom of the rubbermaid tub I kept it in. I got rid of the whole thing and the moths went their merry way pretty quickly.

I just returned home with a bag of bay leaves. Tomorrow I'm hoping to get out to HD or Lowes to buy those traps. When we walked in tonight the laundry room(sort of like our mud room) had 5 of them on the wall! DH sprayed a bit of RAID and then I opened the cabs and sprinkled the bay leaves around.
Ironically the Indian store (in Culver City near where we dined) had loads of spices very cheaply, but a number of their bags were pierced. It made me wonder what other critters I could be bringing in! LOL~
Jim- our birdseed has been moved outside to a metal container over two months ago. However I did pointedly tell DH that you agreed that they arrived in the birdseed! LOL!

I just read this Q&A on a Berkeley site discussing pantry moths. I thought it was interesting.

"Q: I have a problem with pantry moths. We cleaned out the pantry of all the dry goods and I have just purchased this new product from Safer Inc. The product is called the Pantry Pest Trap.

I installed the two traps in the pantry a couple of days ago but I have only trapped one moth. I still see a few moths on the wall and I haven't figured out the source of the moths. Would you have some comments or suggestions for me in dealing with this pest?

A: The problem is that you put out too many traps. One trap is sufficient in any room. If you put out two or more traps, the pheromones in the air will confuse the moths and they will not be able to find the traps. It is kind of like walking into a bakery blindfolded. You know there are goodies in there as the smell of cookies and cupcakes permeate the air, but you wouldn't be able to find them just from the smell.

Take one trap down and I am sure you will start catching moths in the remaining trap."

One person mentioned putting out lids with 3 parts cornmeal, 1 part boric acid to kill the beasties.

Carol

Here is a link that might be useful: Pantry Moth Advice

We had these horrible meal moths last year (despite being Jewish!), and I did get rid of them.

The first two things I would tell you:
1) DON'T blame yourselves. They come in in ANYTHING, including sealed packages of things, so there is really no way to prevent them -- you just have to be lucky.
2) Do some research on the web (google "meal moths"). The following is what I remember from several sites, but it was a while ago.

Yes, they can eat right through bags and boxes, so bagging everything won't prevent them. If you think you may have them, crawl into the pantry and look up where the walls meet the ceiling for that webby stuff.

I learned that you don't have to throw away things. You can either put them in the oven a bit or freeze them for a couple (?) of days. It may creep you out to think that there could possibly be some dead minuscule larva in things, even though you wouldn't detect them, but it isn't unsafe to eat foods as long as they were baked/frozen long enough. So here's what I did -- and note it took a full day:

I researched what foods can be frozen (and got some pleasant surprises).

I took everything out of the pantry. I vacuumed the whole pantry carefully, especially up at the ceiling where I did see one webby thing. I vacuumed and washed all the shelves.

Then I took all UNOPENED packages of things like noodles, rice, flour, etc. and, seeing no signs of infestation, put them in the freezer for however many days the authorities I found said.

Then I examined opened things like bottles of oil, soy sauce, etc., where you wouldn't expect to find them, cleaned them off, and put them back.

Then came the icky part ....

I took all opened packages of flour, sugar, grain, nuts, dried fruits, cereal, etc. -- and one at a time opened them and inspected them. Most looked okay; if they did, they went into the freezer. Anything where I could see larvae, a moth, or that wispy stuff that looks like dust or a cobweb, I threw out. The worst was having to spread out contents of bags of nuts on a cookie sheet to inspect really closely (I did that because nuts were where I had the worst problem; I guess that's where they started -- I first realized we had the problem when I found larvae in nuts while baking. Ick!!!!! The moths we saw were probably the first hatchers).

If there really are no signs of infestation at all on something, go ahead and freeze it and use it with confidence. But when in doubt, throw it out.

Recently we saw a few more moths, but they may be the clothing type, as we have seen them in all the closets, not only the kitchen, and I see no larvae or webby stuff. Our housecleaners said it is a big problem in everyone's house this year. We got a ton of cedar hanger blocks and cedar moth balls, and I put some of those in the pantry.

One more thing: KEEP A SENSE OF HUMOR. This is a big, icky job, but you can get through it. The day I did it was "one of those days," too -- every time I made a little progress, I spilled a box of cornmeal all over the floor, or the dog would run through things, or something like that that kept setting me back a half hour at a time until I felt like it was yesterday (you've had days like that and know what I mean!). It helped a lot to just sit down in the middle of the mess and laugh at how ridiculous the whole thing was.

Good luck!!

Good luck, and keep a sense of humor!

I have found them coming from Sunflower seeds, so I looked
on the internet and got some answers.

Put in the Search Box, " Moths in Sunflower seeds "

LOU

Hey gellchom I bet they are KFP

I found the Food Traps today at Lowe's. I haven't put them out yet. I have 5 separate cabs in the laundry room pantry and 2 cabs in the kitchen. How many traps (I bought 4 after reading Readinglady's post) should I put out?
I did sprinkle the bay leaves last night and there's definitely been more activity today. I was gone most of the day and tomorrow I have to work. I'm thinking on Weds I can do a good clean out, but don't want to disturb the cycle created by the Pantry traps. Ideas?

I used to post 2-3 years ago and mostly lurk now, but this subject is unfortunately near and dear to my heart, ugh. I agree with gellchom.

1. Pest control guys won't spray for them.
2. 90% of the time they come in with the items you buy right from the store. After I was told this, I couldn't believe it--- I actually saw them flying in the baking goods/ flour aisle of our local supermarket.
3. Scrutinize everything--- everything, just as gellchom said. And yes, definitely freeze things, esp. cake mixes, or other flour-y items - just make sure they're sealed well as they can absorb odors even in the freezer.
4. The Pantry Pest traps - the best way to combat them on a regular basis but bear in mind a few things:
a. use only 1/per room - don't over do it. Each trap has a pheromone, which basically tricks male moths into thinking there's a chick waiting for him inside the trap. If there are too many pheromones (traps) around they get confused and won't go to any of them.
b. for some reason, when it comes to using pheromones for tree fruit (commercial growers use them a lot) they say they work best at about 5' off the ground
c. you could still see female moths as the traps only target/ draw in males (sorry guys!)

Hope this helps. Good luck. I've battled them for the last 3 summers (when they're esp bad) in the house we moved into and it drives me nuts. I have to say, though, with our 2 new kitties, we don't seem to have as many this summer. LOL!
Kelly

I seem to have them under control at the moment but bought the traps anyway. I looked at the pantry shelves and realized they need a good tidy and wipe down. I always keep all nuts, cornmeal, brans, poppy seeds, WW flour, and some other things in the freezer. I do so partly because they go rancid or stale before I use them up and partly because of the critter issue.

I've only had a problem with them once, but I bought the traps from Gardens Alive, they have some type of pheromone or similar attractant.

They worked like a charm, I threw away literally everything in the pantry, scrubbed, sprinkled a few bay leaves and never had problems again.

Good luck.

Annie

I had them a couple of years ago. I ended up trashing everything and setting of a bug bomb. Then a totally scrub down of all my cabinets....all four of them..LOL! I do keep bay leaves in the cabinets now and don't seem to have any critters around. I know I read about that here and it seems to work. I think it is luck of the draw when buying whatever at the store. The only thing I keep in the feezer are my whole grain flours. I have read to freeze whatever for a day or two to kill whatever. My culprit was a bag of whole grain rice back in the far reaches of the cabinet.

Good luck Ellen, I hope you clear out and kill off the damn little b@stards.

I need to check into those traps too...might be a good preventive measure to have in the cabinets.

David

I found them in a box of dog biscuits. Yucko!

Jannie we had them come in once in dog kibble, but they were more contained to one cab and easier to get rid of.

I'm exhausted. I've cleaned an tossed or frozen lots of food, found plenty of outdated items too. I'm in the process of putting it all away and wondering about 2 things.
Do I put the bay leaves in now with the trap or will it drive the critters away since they hate the smell of bay leaves?
2. Do I put the trap in the rear of the cab or in the front where I can see it easier as it fills up?

I may have found a couple of offenders. One was a partially open bag of dried mushrooms that had a chip clip closing it and the other was a scoop from some baby formula that I must have had sitting around from DGS #1. It had a little egg/larve inside. I've rearranged and later in the week will do the cabinet in the kitchen. This was the big job and I needed DH's long arms to wipe down the rear.

I HAD WEEVVILS ABOUT TEN YEARS AGO, tHREW OUT everything EVEN NEAR THEM, nOW I'VE GOT THEM AGAIN. iN FLOUR,SOUP MIX,PASTAS, ANYTHING EDIBLE. nOT IN THE SALT. I AGAIN THREW OUT EVERYTHING THEY INFESTED, TOOK EVERYTHING OUT OF THAT CABINET AND SPRAYED WITH RAID ANT AND ROACH. I CLOSED THE CABINET AND WON'T USE IT AGAIN FOR 3 MONTHS. I THINK THAT WILL STOP THEM. I HAD TO BUY NEW RICE, INSTANT POTATOES, FLOUR. SORRY ABOUT ALL CAPS, MY SHIFT KEY IS STUCK. I DON'T MEAN TO YELL.

Oh Jannie, poor you! What a waste of food and effort. WHere can you store these things during the 3 months? I'm not sure what weevils even look like. What a load of work!

I had that problem they were in something I bought at oneof these bulk places.I just kept buying those triangle moth traps they have a lure and they are sticky.I put one every where I saw them,kept putting fresh soon I got them,they were alsoin bird seed I bought.nasty....

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!

Sigh.

Guess what I spent yesterday doing.

The day before, I took out a bag of nuts, only to find that I was holding a bag of nuts and fluttering moths. Straight out to the alley trash can, as if it were radioactive.

So yesterday, I emptied the pantry (and it is a BIG pantry) completely, inspected, pitched (not too much had to go -- I guess I caught it early this time), and froze food. Then I vacuumed the pantry, especially carefully around the edges of the ceiling -- then I emptied the vaccuum, straight out to the alley again, along with all the pitched stuff that was already bagged. Then I washed the pantry shelves and walls with warm soapy water, then dried them, then replaced the cans and bottles (wiping each off). I only saw a couple of larvae this time, and no webbing. But I had a lot of "fliers" in the pantry.

I was TIRED! But I haven't seen any more moths.

Not meal moths, anyway. But the cedar hangers and cedar balls haven't helped in the CLOTHES closets, so tomorrow I go for moth crystals.

Our housecleaners said that everyone they work for is having a problem with both kinds of moths this year -- it's really bad. Is this true in your communities, too?

By the way, my research suggests that the pheromone traps are only useful for monitoring, not for preventing or curing the problem.

I would still keep a close eye on your cupboards. Also check behind EVERY framed picture hanging on the walls for cocoons...they love to hide behind pictures where it is dark and the air is stagnant.

Moth balls also work great for bee and wasp nests and even on raccoons and possum that insist on sleeping quarters under your porch.

Michelle

When we had them, I discovered that they were laying their eggs in the little shelf-support holes in the cabinets. I had to use a toothpick to clean out the holes. Once I did that, they were gone.