Subject: Re: Store moth infestation

From: [email-masked] (mleitch)
Date: Tue, 07 Nov 1995 19:57:42 -0500

In article <[email-masked]>, [email-masked] (Bugbooks)
wrote:

> Michael,
> 
> In the western U.S., at least, we often refer to these stored product
> pests as "pantry moths."  Several species of phycitine pyralid may be
> involved (Ephestia spp., Plodia, etc.); regardless of what species is
> involved, control measures are the same: simply place the infested food in
> the freezer compartment of your refrigerator (or do you call it "fridge"?)
> for a few days.  When you remove the contaminated food from the freezer
> you can inspect it to see if you are willing to consider it to still be
> edible. (People's level of tolerance varies widely: some welcome a little
> extra protein, while the mere thought of an alien presence is nauseating
> to others. If the food has been mostly devoured, leaving nothing but a
> mass of silk, I usually discard he item. If destruction has been minimal,
> however, I pretend that the frass pellets are just black pepper flakes.
> The particular food item and method of preparation also bears on whether
> you keep or discard contaminated food.)
> 
> To prevent future infestations, make it a practice to freeze (or sore in
> the freezer) those foods you are most likely to find contaminated. Some of
> these foods should be transferred to glass or plastic containers before
> storing in the freezer--common sense should be your guide.
> 
> Julian Donahue

I would also suggest hanging a few pheromone traps to trap flying adults.
You might notice flyers aroung dusk, say 4-5pm, esp around where bulk food
is stored. The traps are very effective for indianmeal moth and related
spp, and after a week or so you'll see your populations drop in the trap
catches, so you know they have an impact.

Mark Leitch
Once an entomologist (now software developer) always an entomologist.