00:00Did you know a pest control visit for moths in one room runs $150 to $350, and a whole
00:06house job can hit $350 to $600?
00:08A five-pound bag of flour is a few dollars.
00:11The moths are not sneaking in through a dirty crack.
00:14They are already in the bag.
00:15Tiny eggs you cannot see, laid at the mill or the warehouse, writing home in the paper
00:20like they paid for a seat.
00:22Here is what should bother you tonight.
00:23You set that bag on the shelf.
00:25In a warm pantry, those eggs hatch into little worms.
00:27The worms chew the paper, then the thin plastic on the oats, then the rice, then the dog
00:32food.
00:33One female can drop hundreds of eggs.
00:35The National Pesticide Information Center and Iowa State both say the same quiet thing.
00:41Freeze the food, or you just volunteered your cupboard as a nursery.
00:44I freeze every new bag now.
00:46I'm not tossing $80 of dry goods because I trusted a paper sack.
00:50By the end of this, you will know the four to seven day freezer kill, the jar a worm cannot
00:54chew, the vacuum and soap wipe that stops the next hatch, the cheap trap that tells you
00:59if males are still flying, and the one bag people forget, bird seed and pet food.
01:04I left the extension pages and the container links in the description.
01:08Right now, I'm walking you through it like we just got back from the store.
01:11Here's what it does in normal language.
01:14The common one is the Indian meal moth.
01:16The adult is a small two-tone flyer you notice at the kitchen light.
01:20The adult is not eating your flour.
01:22The worms are.
01:23They crawl through grain, leave silk like cobwebs, and clump the flour into little ropes.
01:28When they are ready to become moths, they wander.
01:32Iowa State says they leave the food and look for a quiet fold.
01:35Shelf paper.
01:36A towel.
01:37The corner of a box.
01:38That is why you find a worm on a dish rack and swear the kitchen is clean.
01:41It walked there on purpose.
01:44The eggs can already be in an unopened bag.
01:47NPIC is blunt about this.
01:49Larvae.
01:50Chew through plastic bags and thin cardboard, so unopened is not a lock.
01:54A paper flour sack.
01:55He is a suitcase, not a vault.
01:58Freezing does not wash the flour.
01:59It stops the clock.
02:01A week in a real freezer.
02:02About zero Fahrenheit.
02:04Kills eggs and worms that were already in there.
02:06Some people run four days and get lucky.
02:08I run four to seven and I sleep.
02:10Iowa State's other option if the freezer is packed.
02:13A 140 degree oven for 15 minutes.
02:16That is salvage.
02:17Not Tuesday storage.
02:19Here's the recipe.
02:20Do this before the bag ever sits on the shelf.
02:22First, do not open it on the counter and scoop.
02:25Slide the whole sack into a big zip bag or leave it in the shopping bag so flour dust is
02:29not decorating the freezer.
02:30Lay it flat.
02:31Four to seven days.
02:33A crowded door shelf that never quite gets cold is not the job.
02:36The back of a freezer that actually holds ice cream brick hard is the job.
02:40Write the date on the bag with a marker so you are not guessing on Thursday.
02:44Second, when it comes out, let it sit on the counter until it is not icy, then dump it.
02:48Not back into the paper.
02:50Into glass, metal, or a thick hard plastic with a real lid.
02:53A five pound bag fits a 4.4 quart pop container.
02:57Home Depot's three pack of those is about $56.
03:00Call it 19 a jar or a couple of big mason jars for a few dollars if you already own
03:04them.
03:05Thin sandwich bags and the original paper do not count.
03:08A worm will cut those like a coupon.
03:10The lid is the whole point.
03:11If something still hatches in that jar, it dies in that jar.
03:14The rest of the pantry stays yours.
03:17Third, the proof on a new bag.
03:18After the freeze, sift a scoop onto a white plate.
03:21You want powder?
03:22Not threads.
03:23Not tan worms.
03:23Not little brown beetles.
03:25Weevils are the hard-shelled cousins that show up in flour and rice.
03:28Same freeze.
03:29Same jar.
03:30If you already see silk or live crawlers, that bag is a nursery.
03:34You can still freeze it to kill what is in it, then decide if you want to bake with it.
03:38A lot of people just toss that one and save the next five bags.
03:42I am not going to talk you into eating a web.
03:44Fourth, if moths are already flying, the freezer on one bag is not enough.
03:49Pull everything that is grain.
03:50Flour, cereal, oats, rice, pasta nuts, chocolate, spices, tea, dried fruit, bird seed, and dry
03:57pet food.
03:58Yes, all of it.
04:00NPIC's list is that long because the worms are not picky.
04:04Take the inner bags out of the boxes, roll them, look in the corners and the folds, webbing,
04:09clumps, holes poked in plastic.
04:12That item.
04:13Leaves the house in a tied bag, not in the kitchen trash overnight.
04:17Fifth, empty the shelf.
04:18Vacuum the corners, the shelf paper edges, the door tracks, the hinge side.
04:23Dump the vacuum outside or throw the bag.
04:25Then wash with warm soapy water.
04:27You are not disinfecting for germs.
04:28You are lifting spilled flour and eggs a sponge can reach.
04:32Iowa State says bleach theater does not kill this pest.
04:35Soap, a cloth, and a vacuum do.
04:37Check the underside of the shelf, the folds of the towels, and nearby drawers.
04:41That is where the wanderers spin a little case and wait.
04:45If this is already useful, subscribe.
04:47It is free.
04:49Members get the longer tests I keep off the main upload.
04:52I put the NPIC page, the Iowa State freeze times, and the jar links in the description so you can
04:58check the builds if you want to try this tonight.
05:00The extras that stop the second hatch and the bag that restarts the whole circus are next.
05:05Now the trap.
05:07And this is the one that tells you the truth.
05:09A two-pack of pantry moth sticky traps is about eight dollars at a lot of garden counters.
05:14Raid's pantry and flower version is the grocery store one.
05:17They use a smell the males fly to.
05:19They do not wipe out a nest by themselves.
05:21They catch the boyfriends so you can see if the problem is still alive.
05:24And they slow the next round of eggs, hang one in the pantry, one near the pet food.
05:29If it stays clean for a couple of weeks after you froze and sealed, you won.
05:33If it loads up, you missed a bag.
05:35Go find it.
05:36The trap is a witness, not a wizard.
05:39Birdseed and kibble are the quiet restart button.
05:42People lock the flower like a bank vault and leave a ripped seed bag in the garage or an
05:46open bin in the mudroom.
05:47Same moth, same worm, same chew through.
05:50Freeze new seed if you can spare the space, or at least dump it into a lidded can the
05:55day it arrives.
05:56Dry cat and dog food gets the same lid.
05:59I have watched a clean kitchen refill from a bird bag on the porch.
06:02That is a two-minute extra, and it is why some people swear they did everything.
06:07Rice, oats, cornmeal, pancake mix, almond flour, chocolate chips.
06:11Same recipe, same week in the cold, same hard container.
06:14You do not need a different spell for each.
06:17One freezer session the day you get home.
06:18If you buy a 10-pound sack, you will not finish this month.
06:21Leave it in the freezer as storage.
06:24Cold flour bakes fine once it warms.
06:26You just stopped paying rent to a moth.
06:28If the freezer is slammed and you need the flour this afternoon, Iowa State's heat
06:32option is the backup.
06:34Spread it and run a 140-degree oven for 15 minutes.
06:37Use an oven thermometer if yours lies.
06:39You are warming a thin layer, not baking bread.
06:42Let it cool, then jar it.
06:44Do not mothball a pantry.
06:46NPIC says mothballs are not for food rooms.
06:49The gas is for sealed fiber bins, and it does not belong over the cereal.
06:53Bay leaves in a jar are a kitchen folktale.
06:56If they make you feel better, toss one in.
06:58They do not replace four days of cold and a lid a worm cannot cut.
07:01But I would rather you spend the $8 on traps and the weekend on jars than decorate a paper
07:06bag with a leaf and call it done.
07:08A couple of small things that decide if this sticks.
07:11Wipe the shelf when flour spills, because a dusting in a corner is a meal.
07:15Use the oldest jar first so nothing sits for a year forgotten.
07:19And if you find cocoons, scrape them.
07:21A pretty moth by the fruit bowl is a billboard that says, a worm already ate, wandered, and
07:26dressed up.
07:28That is your cue to pull the shelves, not to swat and forget.
07:31Do this to the next bag before it ever sees the pantry.
07:35Four to seven days in the cold, hard jar.
07:38$8 trap is the smoke alarm.
07:39The $5 sack stays food.
07:42The $300 visit stays a story that happened to somebody else.
07:46If this keeps a paper bag from hatching in your cupboard, send it to whoever just set
07:49a new sack straight on the shelf.
07:51Take care and I will see you in the next one.
