Weevils (browny black about 7mm long) are crawling up out of the gap between the base and back inside of our wall hung kitchen cupboard Suspect they cam walk all around the inside where the base, top and sides meet the back. How to eradicate them?
Marcus
The only real solution is get a pest control person in, you need to identify them before you know how to get rid. The kitchen is a difficult area because you don't want to use poisons because of the implications to you. I had what I thought were Pharaoh ( a nightmare to get rid of) but they turned out to be book mites and very easy to eradicate. You could have something a simple as silverfish which love damp - so get rid of the damp and they go.
Angela
P.S. the pest guy I called only charged me £15!
We had weevils in the kitchen years ago.Ours came out of a rather old bag of flour left at the back of the cupboard. The live in any dry goods containing flour,granary type stuff such as crackers etc.To get rid just have a good clean around,throw out and suspicious flour or grain based products. More info at
Weevils wobble but they don't fall down!
(ok ok its a bit old I know...) ;-)
I had these things in a flat I used to inhabit. Cereals, pasta and flours were all affected - whether they were there before or whether a bad batch of flour or something introduced them I don't know, but we did manage to get rid of them ISTR.
Complete clear out. Throw away affected cereals, pasta and flours (or if you can bear it, eat 'em. I don't think that they have any negative health effects.)
Clear out all cupboards, vacuum them out.
Then, we used a bleach solution to clean the insides of the cupboards thoroughly.
When you put things back, wipe all tins and other containers down with a mild solution on a damp cloth. I didn't find the need for these expensive antibacterial products and insect killers - bleach is very effective at killing things.
Now's the time to get a load of sealable plastic containers for your flours, pasta, cereals, etc etc - rectangular section ones are easier to stack. Don't store things (like pasta and 'specialist' grains such as couscous) in the cardboard boxes that they come in, but put them into these plastic containers.
If you're scrupulous about your ongoing cleaning then the problem should be contained and eventually eradicated.
cheers Richard
-- Richard Sampson
email me at richard at olifant d-ot co do-t uk
People don't generally realise this, but - the weevil egg is smaller than a grain of flour, and therefore impossible to separate from the flour. We therefore eat weevil eggs - albeit killed by the cooking process (bread, pastry, cakes etc). That's the reason why eating "raw" flour is discouraged. If you leave a (sealed from the grocer's) bag of flour for long enough (perhaps a year or so) you'll find weevils ALL OVER the place! I remember a long time ago, when I was a kid, our cat LOVED to eat Winalot hard dog food. We kept it in an airtight tin in a cupboard. After many moons the cat "went off" it and the tin was forgotten. Later we had loads of these small black crawly "things" everywhere. When my mum eventually discovered the source, the tin was FULL of flour weevils! Hard dog (and cat) food is "processed" - that doesn't necessarily mean that it is cooked. If it isn't cooked the weevil isn't killed. Even keeping goods in airtight "tupperware" containers won't stop weevils from escaping. Use food quickly and rotate your stocks is the only way to go IMHO.
discouraged.
Yeah, I think it was that two year old bag of wholemeal flour that did it. Nobody uses it anymore.
Marcus
Weevils and similar were considered good nutrition many years ago. I'm sure the people who sailed on HMS Victory looked forward to their ration of weevils.....
PoP
"PoP" wrote | "Paul King" wrote: | >People don't generally realise this, but - the weevil egg is smaller | >than a grain of flour, and therefore impossible to separate from the | >flour. We therefore eat weevil eggs - albeit killed by the cooking | >process (bread, | Weevils and similar were considered good nutrition many years ago. I'm | sure the people who sailed on HMS Victory looked forward to their | ration of weevils.....
Does this mean that all flour products are unsuitable for vegans?
Owain
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