Food moths- how do we get rid of them?

[Clairitek]

My FF and I have a severe infestation of food moths. I believe that they are officially called India Meal Moths. We can''t seem to shake these guys. We actually now keep everything in our refrigerator except canned goods. We have cats so using strong pesticides really isn''t something we want to do and I feel like bug bombing the place will only kill the adults- not the larvae.

Does anyone have any experience getting rid of these things? Our food cupboard currently looks like a moth massacre went down because we''ve squashed so many of them with the fly swatter.

 

[Independent Gal]

Oh, do I ever have experience with this! We are staying in a furnished, rented place at the moment, and when we arrived, the moths were already here.

There is a magic solution! It takes a while, but it works. The product is called "Safer" and basically they are traps that use a little pheromone strip stuck to a cardstock triangle. The pheromones are totally harmless to pets and people because it''s just a smell that we can''t smell. The inside is coated in sticky stuff, so the moths fly in, attracted by the pheromone, and then they get stuck.

It''s taken several weeks to catch the 100''s and 100''s of them (and 4 full traps! 2 still on the go) but there are definitely WAY less of them now. Plus, if all the food is in the fridge, they can''t breed, so once they''re gone, they''re gone.

I bought the traps on amazon. They were about $5-10 I think.

Hope that helps!

 

[MichelleCarmen]

Yuck. Diatomaceous earth is suppose to work. You HAVE TO get the food grade form NOT the pool formula. That''s very important.

http://www.wolfcreekranch.net/diatomaceous_earth.html

A 2 lbs pound bag will do the trick. It''s nontoxic, but shouldn''t be breathed in, so use a mask and pat some down in your cuboards and then keep the doors shut. It''ll make you sneeze and LONG TERM use is bad, but to get rid of an infestation, a few weeks to a month, won''t hurt your lungs.

 

[fatafelice]

I can second that! Those traps were a HUGE help in getting rid of our pantry moths.

 

[Clairitek]

Thanks for the recommendations guys! We will certainly invest in some of those traps. I had read about them but I wanted to hear about someone else''s experience before settling on a method to try and exterminate these suckers beyond just killing them as we find them.

I think we got them because they were in a box of cereal we got from BJs Wholesale Club. By the time I figured out the source I think they had already settled into our home. Blech.