If you have one of those things that sucks the air out of food bags (vacuum sealer?) you could put your cookbooks in those until the bugs die from lack of air.

Post your question on the cooking forum, those folks know everything about bugs in pantries.

Place your cookbooks in ziplocks and put in the freezer.

Sherry- thank you for the freezer suggestion! After scrubbing, vacuuming and throwing out an ungodly amount of food, it seems to be better. I won't put anything in there until I know I'm in the clear. I cannot tell you how unglued I am about this. I am not cooking tonight!

I forgot to say I'm sorry this happened to you; I've been there and empathize. It's the grossest of feelings to see bugs living in your food. In my situation, it was weevils (which may be what you have) living in bird seed and they spread to my flour, pasta packages and anything open. Just the memory gives me the willies, I didn't cook for days. LOL

Thank you lukkiirish! I am literally running out now to get the boric acid powder! These are not weevils- they are tiny Turkish beetles. I am freaking out thinking they are on me and keep checking my clothes and hair!

You poor kid. I am constantly battling clothes moths. The freezer is a good idea. I put a lot of my clothes on the porch during the dead of winter to kill moths. Ugh.

If this is the first time you've seen bugs in your pantry, there's always the possibility you have used the product before the bugs hatched. You wouldn't have seen the eggs in any dry product such as flour, cake mix, rice, cereals which need cooking such as oatmeal, etc. I don't 'get' how this starts in the first place, but i've seen weevils(tiny brown bugs)in an unopened bag of flour as well as cake mixes that i've had past the experation date. Makes me wonder if the experation date is a 'ploy' to hide the eggs before they're hatched and the bugs become visible. Quality control in a processing plant, even with government 'regulations', doesn't make me feel at ease as there's always something that's being recalled. Sad but true.

Oh, they won't bother you, they just get in food. I usually keep two bags of plain flour, one I'm using and one for a back up. A couple of years ago, I opened the second one and before I used it, I noticed the flour moving! They could of got there at the factory, but I believe it was probably the store. It could of been here at home! I use the plastic storage containers also, and it stops one from (if ever) from getting into the other stuff. If I don't have a container and I open the package, I have started putting the inside package in a ziplock and putting that back in the box.

Freezer all the way! & I usually put bulk food items, grains, flours, etc. in the freezer for a week , after I bring them home from the store & before storing them in the pantry. I use airtight tins , jars, etc. as well, to prevent critters from getting in - or out....

This is day 2 of debugging my pantry. It's empty, vacuumed, bleached and now covered in boric acd on the shelves. I refuse to put anything back in until I am sure they are gone because I am not going through this again! This has turned into an obsessive cleaning frenzy- I'm scouring every cabinet and drawer and cleaning cabinets fronts , range hood, and anything else I can get my hands on. I'm also getting rid of stuff I don't use and doing major reorganizing. At least I'll end up with a sparkling clean kitchen, which is funny since it will be ripped out and redone in January.

Pantry Pest Traps work very well (I think there might be an older thread on this in the Cooking forum). Agree with sealing in resealable bags or glass.

Thanks diane_nj! I'm calling around to see who carries them. Anything that can help will be used. These bugs are so tiny that now I'm imagining I see them everywhere! At first dh thought I was being too fanatical, but now he is glad I am being so obsessively diligent. I just found 2 in the kitchen itself ( this pantry is in the hall outside of kitchen) so now I am doing everything I can to get rid of them. Im scouring everything in sight. I'm feeling very sick with disgust and exhaustion!

Home Depot carries the traps that diane linked.

I've never heard of those before, but the Boric Acid has kept our house pretty much bug free for years so it may take a little time, but you should be able to get them all. Bugs of any kind in your pantry is a horrible thing to go through. I wish I had had a new kitchen to look forward to when it happened to me!

How is everything going? I had forgot that after my last bad outbreak, that I had been putting the bags of flour in the freezer until I needed them. Thanks, I will go back to doing this.