Bugs in stored food

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chinchillin2005

Shadow's mom
Joined
Jul 11, 2012
Messages
199
Ewww. So I've ordered different herbs from november 2012 and had some oats for quite a while now and yesterday I saw tiny black bugs with wings that looked like tiny tiny beetles in some containers. I obviously threw all of it away and ordered new herbs, but how do I prevent this in the future from ever happening again? I cleaned the area with lysol and that's about it. I've noticed I find bugs in food after I put into containers not the original bag it came in. Has anyone found bugs that looked like this, and if so what did you to prevent it? oh and I found a huge spider right above my chinchillas cage that i couldnt reach, would it be a harm to my chinchilla in anyway?
 
The spider can harm your chinchilla. Remove it. Or be like me and have somebody remove it for you. I'm terrified of spiders.

How are you storing your food? Is it in an air tight container?
 
:yuck:And now I'm off to the store to or row to get more containers for all my treats. I keep my food in an air tight container but not my oats or rose hips. I've never had bugs in them and hope I never do :yuck:
 
Tiny black bugs with wings could be a lot of different things. My first thought though is some type of fruit fly. Usually when whatever thing they are infesting is thrown away they stop being a problem. Another pantry pest that people often end up dealing with is Indian Meal Moths. They are pretty common, and at least in my area are probably the most common pantry pest. Try doing a google image search for them and see if that is what you're dealing with. Most pantry pests are going to go after some sort of grain, or oat, or wheat product. They will not usually go away on their own. Normally the solution is going to be to go through all your pantry items and throw away everything that you do not absolutely need, sealed boxes included. It's amazing what all they can get in to, even if it is sealed. If you do not want to throw things away you can either freeze it for 24 hours, which will kill any possible bugs, or you can put your items into a dark hefty bag and set it out in the sun on a hot day for a few hours. It will get incredibly hot inside the bag and the heat will kill the bugs. Of course doing either of those things will still leave dead bugs in your pantry items, which of course probably isn't highly desirable. After you've cleaned everything out you might still need to fog the house, or possibly use some pheromone traps to reduce their number enough to eliminate the problem. It would be best for me if I could see a picture of some of these bugs, that way I could properly ID them for you. One important difference would be if they are fruit flies, and not a pantry pest. Fruit flies are not going to be drawn to grains and such. Instead they will be after some sort of rotting fruit. Hmmm... just reread your description... look like tiny black beetles with wings.... That could be carpet beetles too. image search black carpet beetles and varied carpet beetles. see if either of those look like what you have. Yep, a picture would definitely help with this one.
 
I wouldn't worry too much about the spider unless it is a poisonous one, granted if they catch it they will eat it. I watched one of my females snatch a fly I was chasing out of the air, rip the wings off and eat the body. :/

Personally I can't sleep knowing there is a large, live spider in my house.

You've got some good advice on the bugs and storing things, likely you had some come into your house recently, probably within the last month. You'll want to put your flour, sugar, oats, anything you bake with that is edible, etc into plastic for the time being. Check your hay too.
 
There are a lot of foods that actually contain eggs from bugs. Sometimes these will actually hatch in the container with foods like oats and grains and other staples. Usually with human grade things there's less of a chance of it happening, but with large bags of oats that are purchased at feed stores there's a great chance that in a few months there could be bugs that hatch from eggs in the bags. You can get beetles or small flying things or those awful weevils.

An air tight container would prevent bugs from getting in, and throwing out things like grains and supplement every three months and getting fresh stuff would be a great idea. Wherever there is something edible eventually bugs will come to eat it. You have to be very vigilant with food and also toss out anything that has been sitting for awhile. I try to use up everything as soon as I possibly can because I hate bugs and I won't let them in my house if at all possible!
 
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