Had a new bag of Golden Pheasant polenta from Safeway, I opened it to use to keep flatbreads from

H

heather_in_sf

Well-known member
sticking to the peel and found it was full of little black bugs. Aaack! I had the bag in my cooler, the former ice box for my kitchen back in the 20s, and in there are some boxed mixes and a bag of whole wheat flour and a few other starchy things. Do you think these bugs left their happy polenta home, or are these other things safe? I dumped the bag, the pizza dough that was on the peel and then shut the door, and haven't opened the icebox since..... ugh. Too bad I don't remember when I bought the polenta, a few weeks ago, the stuff is expensive!!!

 
Eww, take it back...and I'm afraid you'll need to investigate to see if they spread. Good luck!

This is your mission if you should choose to accept it.

(This tape will self-destruct in 5 minutes.)

 
Most likely if one bag has the little buggers the rest do too.

They are probably little weevils. Hard to get rid of. I guess you'll have to open another bag to see for sure.

 
I have never seen black ones before... ewww!

The cupboard is securely closed until I can get in there, gloves on... Saturday fun, hahahaaaaa.

bummer, I have a new bag of bread flour in there too. I was going to make walnut cherry bread Saturday too! We shall see what I see but I think it's best if it just goes bye-bye!!

 
You will know immediately if they are everywhere.In the

South there is little to do about them--they come with the territory. It may just have been that package, and if the other packages are intact, they won't have gotten in. It comes from the mill usually--or a source. Good luck.

 
you are going to want to clean out your box and vacuum it

to get rid of not only the beetles but also their eggs.

I used to collect cigars. Tobacco beetles are a problem in particular when getting cigars from Cuba. If you see beetles what you don't see are probably a lot more eggs. What many cigar collectors do is freeze their cigars. When I got new cigars, I would just put my cigars in a ziplock and freeze them for a few days before putting them in my humidor.

I don't know this for sure but I would assume that the eggs / larvae and beetle /weevil have similar lifecycles, behaviors and vulnerabilities. But this chart I found is what you could expect with cigars/tobacco beetles which you could apply to your flour etc:

http://eat.at/dnd/beetlechart.jpg

 
You must log in or register to reply here.
Back
Top