Bug Problems

I’ve fallen a little behind this week. Like most people I put things off until the last minute. My kids take priority over my blog after all. This week I had written about half of what I had planned on writing when my husband informed me that he stumbled on these tiny little bugs in our pantry. I immediately got up to investigate. Through google I determined that there are several types of bugs that can infest your pantry and they almost always come from the food you bought at the store. No surprise, when you buy real food that hasn’t been highly processed there’s always a risk for bug larvae or eggs to be in your food products. In our case, they were in one of those individual packages of oatmeal. My husband threw the package away a couple weeks ago and I hadn’t seen any bugs since; mostly because he had been gone for the last 2 weeks, so the kids and I had been snacking more on fruits and veggies and cooking fewer dry goods from the pantry.

My first step was to get rid of everything that could even possibly have been contaminated. When it comes to bug infestations you don’t want to take any chances. The first thing I noticed was that anything with cardboard packaging had bugs. In fact, every piece of cardboard in our cupboard had these little bugs on it. This includes a box that I kept my clean, empty canning jars in. Realizing that, I threw out everything cardboard. I quit even checking. If you’ve ever had any kind of bug infestation, you know it doesn’t take much to suddenly have a full blown infestation; just a bug or two and a few weeks’ time and you’ll spend months trying to get rid of the bastards. I don’t have that kind of time or patience! I let the crazy wash over my and suddenly cleaning became my new superpower.

After I had purged the entire pantry of everything that could have potentially been infested, I searched google to see if I could find a natural remedy to kill any bugs that remained. To my surprise, there was little to no useful information on getting rid of them. I found a lot of information on the bugs themselves, and plenty of information on getting rid of other kinds of household pests, but almost nothing on pantry bugs. I was relieved when I found another blogger who had the same problem and claimed to have gotten rid of them through burning the food that was infested. She continued on about how she sent her kids on a scavenger hunt to find and flush whatever bugs they could get. She finished her blog post stating that after a few days they were still finding a few here and there but the worst of it had passed. There was no update to her blogpost, but I imagine that was not the end of the problem. Bugs like that infest and when their home gets destroyed they find the next closest source to infest until you lose your mind trying to get rid of them once and for all. I quickly discredited her whole post when I read that she had her kids chasing them down one at a time. I mean seriously, that’s what vacuums are for. Even if you don’t own a vacuum, you ought to know someone who does.

How I Finally Got Rid of Them

First, as I stated earlier, I removed everything from the pantry. This includes non-food stuff since I believe they were also feeding on cardboard as well. I’m a little paranoid when it comes to bugs in my food to begin with, so everything was already in tightly sealed containers. These bugs however, were small enough to squeeze through some of the lids and got into some of my Tupperware containers that had a pour spout on them. All that stuff had to go too. My next step was to vacuum the pantry and any carpeting that was nearby. Those little buggers will hide in your carpeting too. Then I moved on to washing EVERYTHING down with hot soapy water. A lot of bugs (specifically cockroaches) are allergic to dish soap. Before I went to bed that night, I sprayed the cupboards and outsides of the jars down with an eco-friendly “kitchen bug killer” that I had on hand. The next morning I went to our local organic food market and picked up some essential oils. Most bugs universally hate the same things so I mixed a concoction together and crossed my fingers. I lined the shelves so that if there were any remaining eggs somehow hidden in the wood or something they’d be trapped by the sticky paper. (I’m sure this was just my excessive paranoia, but I did it anyway). I have since put all the food back in my pantry and sprayed it down with my own weird blend of pest killing ingredients. It’s been a few days now and I haven’t found anything in my food, but I have seen a few dead bugs in the two corners where the problem seemed to originate from. I will continue to spray it down daily, but I think we may have solved the problem. I think it’s miraculous to clear up a problem like this in one weekend, so I’m keeping my fingers crossed, but remaining hopeful. I will post an update on how this all worked out in a week or two.

My Bug Killing Recipe

I didn’t measure anything; I just sort of mixed it all together in a small spray bottle. I Filled ½ the bottle with vinegar and the next ¼ or so with vodka. I dropped in a few dried bay leaves and orange peels. Then, topped off the spray bottle with equal parts peppermint oil, eucalyptus oil, and tea tree oil. Shake it up before each use and Boom! DONE! No more bugs. (FYI, it smells really strong). I spray it down once a day, but I haven't seen any new bugs in the last few days.

Preventative Measures

I plan to take some preventative measure for the future. First of all, you can freeze your grains for 4-5 days to kill any eggs that may exist. I also plan on making some bug repelling sachets to fill with dried lemon and orange peels, peppercorns, and dried peppermint and bay leaves. Hopefully this will keep all bugs away in the future.

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