Can you sift weevils out of flour

Since weevils can eat through cardboard boxes or bags, you'll need to store your pantry foods in hard plastic containers or jars that are air-tight. If you've bought bakery mixes like cake or muffin mixes , check these for weevils and transfer them to containers. You can color code or label your containers to make them easy to use. Method 2. Buy smaller amounts of flour.

If you don't use very much flour, consider buying small amounts at a time. If you leave flour sitting around for a long period of time, weevils may be encouraged to lay their eggs in it. The faster you use your flour, the fresher it is, and the fewer the chances for infestation. Freeze the flour. As soon as you bring flour home, seal it inside a freezer bag and put it in the freezer for at least 1 week.

This will kill any eggs or weevils that are already in the flour. You can then take the flour out and store it in your pantry in an airtight, hard container or just keep it in the freezer until you need it. Place a fresh bay leaf in the flour. Get out fresh bay leaves and put one in each container or bag of stored flour. Some people believe bay leaves can prevent weevil infestations.

You'll need to replace the bay leaves every few months or when you can no longer smell them. You can find fresh bay leaves in the produce department near the other fresh herbs. Use pheromone traps. You can buy small packages of weevil traps that use pheromones to attract the weevils and pantry moths.

The traps have a sticky space that trap the pantry pests. Place a few of these around your pantry and change them once they're full. If you are overwhelmed by a huge infestation of weevils for example, thousands are crawling all over your floors and walls , you may want to contact a pest control professional.

Check your pantry for weevils on a regular basis. You should check your pantry every month or two for weevils. This is especially important because adult weevils can live at least a year.

Remember to thoroughly clean out hard-to-reach parts of your pantry where weevils might start thriving. Keeping a clean pantry will prevent flour weevils from coming back. Include your email address to get a message when this question is answered. By using this service, some information may be shared with YouTube. Do not throw contaminated food away in your kitchen.

Take it to the outside dumpster to prevent the weevils from re-infesting your pantry. Helpful 4 Not Helpful 0. If you have contact paper lining your cupboards, remove it before you clean the cupboards since weevils can hide underneath it.

Helpful 4 Not Helpful 1. If you've just purchased the flour that you found weevils in, consider sealing the bag in an airtight container and returning it to the store where you bought it.

Helpful 0 Not Helpful 2. Submit a Tip All tip submissions are carefully reviewed before being published. Related wikiHows How to. How to. About This Article. Co-authored by:. Co-authors: Updated: October 16, Categories: Featured Articles Food Safety. Article Summary X To get rid of weevils, or flour bugs, first toss out any infested food in your pantry.

Nederlands: Snuitkevers bestrijden. Bahasa Indonesia: Mengusir Kutu Tepung. Thank you Betty Crocker. I pulled a sieve from the back of the drawer and went about straining the flour into another bowl.

There were so many weevils and weevil worms in that cup of flour that I had to replace some new flour to make-up for the lost amount. Cup after cup produced more and more culprits. In the end, we had a healthy cup full of bugs. The flour is now sitting in the freezer, hoping to discourage any future copulation. Perhaps sifting has something to do with the quality of evenly-distributed grains of flour.

Evil weevil! But really, people have been eating them for centuries. You are commenting using your WordPress. You are commenting using your Google account. You are commenting using your Twitter account. You are commenting using your Facebook account. Notify me of new comments via email. I got my magnifying glass out and I can't see if it is a "critter" or not.

If it is a crawly, then do they come from milling like that? I keep my grains in air tight plastic and unless they are already in the bag when I buy it, where dose it come from? Freezing has been mentioned but I have a very small chest freezer and due to the cost of electricity here 34 cents a KW!

I can't afford to run an extra or bigger one. USDA, I know allows so many parts per million of bug "parts" in canned goods. What about grains? If you didn't see it, would you know?? Thank you all for the time taken to respond to my dilemma.

I really do love this site and forum. I Googled "how to get rid of flour weevles", and it's amazing the things you can find. What seems to make the most sense is freezing the flour or any grain product before the things hatch. Yes, it's true, the eggs are already there when we buy it. I'm also relieved at how many people there are out there not only from tfl that will just do the best they can to get rid of them, and continue on using the grain. Relieved, because I thought I was the only one.

And, I can say from experience, that was some of the best cornbread I ever had. Thanks again, everyone! Bon Apetit! Look at it this way, If you have an old bag of flour and nothing grows in it I think of the little critters as competition for my food. Who's faster? Keeping bags of flour as stock is only economical when you can use it up in a certain time period.

The price of storing it, keeping it cool, should be considered. I have used my digital camera to see and photograph suspicious "spots" in food stuffs. Easily blowing them up on the computer to figure them out. In Tropical regions, I have always sifted the flour. A sieve is a basic kitchen tool. I don't like the sifters with the fancy grip that rotate a blade in the sifter Keeping starchy basics - even pastas and legumes - isn't a problem unless you freak out at weevils. If you do, just buy enough for your immediate needs.

On most occasions the eggs come with the goods - if they ARE good and haven't been subjected to pesticides or radiation in which case the eggs or insects will still be there, just dead. You can't get rid of them, only the evidence :- But they won't do any harm. You're breathing in many other life-forms every time you inhale.

If you open your mouth they get in there too. Why worry? Very good point Mini!! I think the main reason I stock pile so much food stuff in my house is because I hate having to make special trips to the grocery store in the middle of cooking or baking. It's a 32 mile round trip to the better stores for me. I dont buy large quantities but I have a huge assortment of rice, flours, beans, lentils and nuts. I try to keep most of the stuff in the refrigerator.

I have found that once you have an infestation, they just find different medium to infest.