How unpleasant it is when you suddenly find strange insects in a jar of buckwheat and you have to throw away the food. Usually, housewives are upset that they overlooked and allowed damage to cereals or flour. Let's get acquainted with the main causes of the appearance of bugs in bulk products and methods of dealing with this problem, proven in practice.
Why do bugs start in cereals
It is a mistake to think that bugs start when you personally violate sanitary norms food storage. No matter how much you wash, clean and clean the kitchen, it's not about you. They come to your house along with cereals directly from factories or factories where they allowed their penetration. Enterprises must produce special heat treatment products at high temperatures ah, observe the proper standards for its maintenance, including illumination and humidity of the room.
Even in vacuum packaging, purchased at the store, there may be living creatures that are moved from pasta, dried fruits, coffee or tea purchased by weight. The factories employ specialists who must strictly follow the rules and procedures for processing future goods. Manufacturers who have allowed such gaps only make anti-advertising of their products, which is fraught with losses for the enterprise.
What insects can start in cereals
It seems to you that all the bugs that eat your future porridge are the same, it wasn’t there. See how many varieties you can find in bags of cereal:
Red mucoed. Habitat - mills, bakeries and cereal factories. Flour-eaters feed on spoiled flour or rotten cereals stored in conditions high humidity. The size of an individual reaches 2.5 mm. If it is dry and warm in your kitchen or pantry, they will not find decent food for themselves and will clean themselves out of your home. If you find small holes in the flour sieve, be sure that you have a flour eater.
Bread grinder. Habitat - bakeries and bakeries. Grinders feed on crackers, cookies, dryers, biscuits and other dry bakery products. Getting into apartments, they can eat dried herbs, coffee, even books, herbariums and tobacco. Very voracious. The size of one insect is up to 3 mm. These bugs move in flight, focusing on the light. In the process of searching for food, they can be found on the windowsills, closer to the illuminated area. Human consumption of products that have been penetrated by grinders is fraught with gastrointestinal poisoning.
Settles in kitchen cabinets. If you accidentally bring a bag of flour with a couple of these bugs into the kitchen, they will quickly spread throughout the territory. Khrushchak's favorite food is wheat or rye flour, semolina, oatmeal, rarely buckwheat and dried fruits. The size of the insect reaches 3.5 mm. Hrushchak lay their larvae directly in food or in the crevices of kitchen furniture, multiply very quickly, bringing offspring up to four times a year. If they are found, the products can be thrown away immediately, otherwise they can cause allergies and even food poisoning in a person.
Food moth. Starting in larger foods, such as nuts or dried fruits, it sometimes moves into cereals. The size of an individual of this butterfly reaches 10 mm. She can lay over 350 eggs in her two weeks of life. Caterpillars then hatch from them, devouring any food they come across.
Read the following information carefully to meet this small but dirty enemy fully armed. If you simply remove a bug from cereals or flour that accidentally caught your eye, believe me - you have not solved the problem at all. It is necessary to perform a series of actions in sequence:
- Review all the containers in which you store bulk products, cereals, flour, sugar, salt, tea, etc. If you find bugs somewhere, immediately throw away this package or the contents of the jar.
- The containers must then be thoroughly rinsed. soapy water in hot water and dry well. Bags and plastic bags should be thrown away immediately, do not even try to wash them.
- Products that are still beyond suspicion, put in the freezer for a couple of days. This is done in case the bugs still managed to lay eggs in the cereal, of which low temperatures new offspring will not hatch.
- Empty kitchen cabinets and wash them thoroughly with disinfectants, you can use laundry soap with soda or vinegar, wash from all sides, penetrating into every crack.
- Latches and brackets of lockers can be doused with boiling water. Then let the furniture dry well for at least a day.
- The shelves of dried cabinets are lined with clean paper or newspapers, on which garlic cloves and bay leaves are laid out, you can spread sprigs of dry lavender.
- Newly purchased cereals, flour and other products should be stored in metal or glass containers, which are tightly closed with lids. Pasta packaged in boxes, be sure to pour into jars. For prevention, you can put an unpeeled clove of garlic in a jar, it does not emit a strong smell, but the bugs will not start.
- Buy bulk materials in small portions, but more often. Then, in any case, the bugs will not have time to settle in your products.
- Try to keep the kitchen always dry and warm, high humidity is the best environment for various harmful insects.
- Periodically look through the products in the lockers in order to detect a bug that accidentally penetrated the grits in time. If you keep something for more than a year, it is a definite contender for throwing out.
How to prevent the appearance of bugs
Every housewife should understand that it is better to create unbearable conditions for the bugs in the kitchen than to mess with their destruction for a long time. There are few such rules, remember the most important of them:
- Groats purchased in a store should be dried immediately in the oven at a low temperature for no more than 20 minutes;
- It is necessary to scatter products in glass or metal containers, tightly closed with lids;
- Do not store a lot of food for a rainy day, periodically update your set of cereals, flour or sugar;
- Put garlic cloves or bay leaves in jars with bulk substances, all types of bugs do not tolerate their smell;
- Store nuts and dried fruits only in the refrigerator in tightly closed jars;
- Wipe at least once a week kitchen furniture, especially the one where cereals are stored, with vinegar diluted in water;
- When purchasing cereals or flour in a store, pay attention to the production date, do not take expired products, even at very large discounts;
- Keep an eye on the humidity in pantries and in the kitchen area.
It would seem that there is nothing difficult in avoiding the appearance of bugs in products. However, every housewife at least once in her life met with these pests. It’s not difficult to defeat them, all the means are at your fingertips, just don’t lose patience, a real woman doesn’t care.
Video: how to store cereals so that bugs and mold do not start there
QUOTE] and] Original message Rudko_Aleksey / and]
Bugs in croup at least once in a lifetime were planted by every, even the most zealous housewife. The presence of insects in the house is unpleasant. They spoil food and leave waste products in cabinets. How to get rid of bugs in croup?
Instruction:
Mukoed Surinamese
1. If you have black bugs in your croup, you can be sure that these are flour eaters. They eat any kind of cereals - barley, rice, millet, oatmeal, semolina, buckwheat, wheat, etc. and, of course, flour. Also, stocks of crackers, cookies, dried fruits, peas, beans and pasta can suffer from the flour eater.
2. It is difficult to fight bugs in cereals, since their females lay their eggs in the most secluded corners of cabinets (in crevices, on packaging bags). Mistresses often, having got rid of bugs, sigh with relief. However, after some time, new eggs hatch and the epic of fighting them is repeated with them. But do not despair, we will tell you in detail how to get rid of bugs in the croup.
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Preventive measures:
1. Flour eaters are afraid sunlight. Therefore, if the cereal was not infected with bugs in the store or store, then at home pour it into glass jars or containers and place on open shelves.
2. It is important to keep the product dry.
3. Simple trick. Bury a few steel nails in the grain. After washing them and drying them well, so as not to rust.
4. Also in containers with products that may be attacked by bugs, you can put a peeled clove of garlic or a bay leaf.
Fighting bugs
1. If you have already found small bugs in the croup, then we advise you to do the following. Sort the cereal and heat in the oven at 40-50 ºС. You can do the same with pasta and flour. It is important to monitor the process and not burn the products.
2. And here's how else you can get rid of bugs in the croup. Sort out supplies and store them in the refrigerator door.
3. Also be sure to wash cabinets with soapy water. And then coat all the cracks and joints of the shelves with vinegar. You can also put garlic in cabinets, but it smells too strong. The smell of vinegar is almost not felt.
Indian moth
We found out how to get rid of bugs in croup. Now let's get acquainted with another destroyer of household supplies - food moth. This butterfly is a close relative of the one that spoils clothes stale in the closet. It is not the butterfly itself that eats the products, but its larvae, which look like thick white worms.
Fighting food moth
1. You can prevent the appearance of this insect in your home bins by regularly airing cabinets and the products themselves.
2. It will also help to store cereals in glass containers, the necks of which can be lubricated. vegetable oil then the larvae will not get into it.
3. Unfortunately, it is impossible to save food affected by Indian moth. It is necessary to carefully inspect all containers with cereals, pasta and nuts and, if insects are found, discard their contents.
4. It is better to burn products with moth larvae, in extreme cases, take them out into an outdoor container. But, in no case, do not throw them into the garbage chute, otherwise the worms will spread throughout all the apartments.
5. Treat all kitchen cabinets in the same way as in the case of the flour eater. Do the same with the cereal containers.
article author: Lando Anastasia
/QYOTE]
11/30/2017 3 1 949 views
We decided to cook our favorite porridge for lunch, but found bugs in the cereal - how to get rid of them in the kitchen and how to process the shelves? Insects usually do not pose a danger to humans. But they completely discourage the desire to cook. It's a shame when there is a large supply of food. Do you have to throw everything away?
Getting rid of bugs is real and there are many ways. With the help of sifting, it is easy to eliminate adults. At the same time, their eggs are so small that they can easily pass through the holes of the sieve. By appearance they are like flour. If insects have spread throughout the kitchen, efforts will have to be made to destroy them.
Why can bugs start in croup?
Usually, beetles enter from dry bulk products bought at the market or in a department store. The danger of their appearance is increased if you purchased them in loose form or in a place where they do not care too much about quality. Basically, cereals are processed during packaging, and popular manufacturers do not have such situations. Consider how to deal with uninvited guests in the kitchen.
What insects can live in kitchen cabinets?
Bugs in cereals can be of various types. You need to recognize an insect in order to have an idea of how dangerous it is for humans.
- Bread grinder. The size does not exceed 3 mm. Color - light brown. It feeds mainly on hard baked goods (crackers, dryers, biscuits). Excrement and passages are noticed in it. Also, beetles can encroach on dry herbs, chocolate, tea, muesli. They are usually found on a light surface. If a lot of insects are bred, they begin to look for a new abode.
- Small flour beetle. The size is about 3 mm. Color - brown-red. Beetles live in flour or starch, from which they crawl into all poorly closed boxes and jars, especially where wheat is stored, semolina, buckwheat. Reproduction occurs in the crevices of cabinets, so they also need to be processed.
- Red mucoed. Size - 2.5 mm. Color - red, light brown. It lives in cereal and flour mills, elevators and grain warehouses, if there is dampness. When it enters the house, it does not live for a long time, since it does not eat dry products. Penetrates the kitchen with cereals, flour or budget rodent food.
- Surinam flour eater. The description is the same with the red mucoed, the difference is only in the dark brown color.
How to get rid of beetles in cereals forever?
It is important to consider that black and brown small bugs quickly spread to all products. The affected semolina is best thrown away, and then check the rest of the contents of the cabinet. Insects can be not only in food, but also inside furniture. Therefore, it is worth wiping it hot water with the addition of vinegar or disinfectant.
The main methods of destroying bugs:
- Washing. Insects weigh less than grains, so being in liquid, beetles quickly find themselves on the surface. The cereal is left in salted water, then dried on a towel.
- Screening. Passing the grains through a sieve rids the products of the excrement of pests. You can do this before washing the cereal in water.
- Heat treatment. Insects will not tolerate extreme cold or heat. The cereal in the bag should be left overnight in the freezer or on the balcony in winter. You can distribute the grains on a baking sheet and leave at a temperature of 110 degrees. The effect of the heat will be rapid, just a few minutes.
- Bait. To remove insects with a long proboscis, which are called "flour beetle", it is recommended to use a method that is safe for people. For cooking, you need to take borax, semolina and powdered sugar in the same amount, form a dough. Arrange on cardboard or cellophane in cabinets.
How are shelves processed after insect baiting?
After getting rid of beetles that spoil flour, cereals and vegetables, you need to start general cleaning in the kitchen. All cabinets, shelves, floors and walls should be thoroughly washed. The eggs could have been laid anywhere, so every corner needs attention. Worth stocking up detergent, vinegar or disinfectant solution, a washcloth and a dry cloth.
It is recommended to start cleaning from the lockers, as the beetles were bred mainly in this place. Wash inside and out with kitchen cleaner. The disinfectant solution will help eliminate insect eggs. If desired, you can use safe method- hot water with vinegar.
For the complete destruction of beetles, disinfection must be carried out two or three times. If you have used an insecticide to get rid of insects chemical composition, do not put food in the closet for two days.
How to store cereals?
To prevent bugs from starting at home, you need to check the products for their presence with an interval of seven days. On the shelves you can put garlic in peeled form or Bay leaf- smells repel pests.
When purchasing cereals (especially when in doubt about its quality), put it in the refrigerator for a while. Beetles, if present, will immediately make themselves felt and will not crawl onto other products. You should not stock up on food too much, it is better to go to the store once again than to get rid of pests and throw everything away later.
You can avoid the appearance of beetles by following certain rules. Cereals should be in glass containers with a tight-fitting lid. Storing flour and grains is slightly different:
- The flour must be dried, and then poured into a glass container. If you are used to large stocks, you should purchase a plastic container with a volume of 25 liters. Humidity should not exceed 65%. The recommended storage temperature is 5-18 degrees.
- Groats should be in special containers - cans made of metal, glass, ceramics or plastic. Do not forget about the lids - this is very important so that insects do not get into the container.
Semolina, rice, buckwheat and flour can be stored for no more than six months. Oatmeal, millet and unground - no more than four months.
Video: how to get rid of bugs in cereals in the kitchen?
Additional questions
Why are bugs in croup dangerous?
Beetles are not dangerous, but eggs and larvae reduce nutritional value products. The waste sometimes contains antigens that can lead to allergic reactions.
The greatest health risk is represented by insects called flour beetles or flour beetles that live in flour or semolina. Their excrement is difficult to distinguish from particles of this food. They can cause an allergic reaction or aggravate asthma symptoms.
If a beetle called a flour-eater was found in the cereal, then mold can get into the products. These insects usually live in conditions of high humidity. In this case, intoxication or poisoning can occur, especially if grains are consumed for a long time.
If there are bugs in the cereal, can it be eaten?
Washing is not enough to safely eat such cereals. Beetles actively breed, leave excrement. If there are few of them, then whether to cook from the product after washing and drying is at the discretion of the hostess.
If beetles live in cereals and spices, crawl all over the house, the situation becomes more complicated. With a strong infection of the grains, their taste properties are lost. Insects eat their valuable basis, and bitterness remains. If pests have been in the products for a long time, chitinous skins, empty cocoons, and excrement remain. They are dangerous to humans, because when they are eaten, you can get poisoned.
When using flour after sifting, difficulties arise. Insects eat valuable protein, so kneading it becomes almost impossible.
Keeping cereals in containers is essential to prevent the bugs from spreading to foods at a high rate. It is equally important to always keep the kitchen clean - observe general rules hygiene and regular cleaning. If you suppressed the invasion of insects, but did not take serious measures, the pests will appear again.
Most often, bugs living in flour or cereals are of three types:
- bread grinders;
- ordinary flour beetles;
- red flour-eating bugs.
The "home" of grinders are bakeries and bakeries, where they have direct access to freshly baked bread. They fly well and orient themselves only to the light, so if you have a basket of cookies or bread on the windowsill at home, then you need to look for grinders there. In addition to bread, they can eat dried tea, medicinal plants, book spines and many others. Unlike, for example, from cockroaches, they themselves cannot breed in the house, therefore they appear there after they are brought from a store or warehouse.
The most common pests in the kitchen are mealworms. These little bugs are easy to bring into the house in a bag or in a bag of cereal, from where they can easily move deeper into the house and settle in the closet. They have a weakness for rye and wheat flour, as well as to buckwheat and to hercules. Rice is not particularly liked. Once in cereal or flour, the beetles immediately actively multiply, laying eggs anywhere, after hatching of which the larvae easily crawl into any loosely closed box or bag.
It is no longer possible to use such flour for food. It can cause a severe allergic reaction, and together with mold, it can cause poisoning.
Methods for dealing with bugs
More often than not, people don't know exactly when a product goes bad, so contaminated flour or grits can be easily cooked and eaten, and with it most bugs and their eggs. Of course, during cooking, many of them can die from high temperatures, but someone will still survive and enter the body. If this happens, the following signs will indicate this:
- Gradually weakening immunity, frequent illnesses and general weakness, which lasts a long time and stably;
- Frequent and rapid fatigue, which occurs even after minor activity;
- Constant sleepiness;
- Frequent depression, breakdowns, Bad mood, aggressive behavior;
- Headaches and various spasms in the abdomen and stomach.
Prevention
It is also recommended to cover bread and cookies with a napkin or put them in special airtight bread bins where grinders cannot reach them. And also constantly monitor the level of humidity, because if the products begin to rot, then creatures will appear much more unpleasant than ordinary bugs, for example, the same wood lice.
How to get rid of flour bugs in the kitchen? Such a question arises in the head of every housewife when numerous small insects are found that have occupied food supplies in the closet. A rather unpleasant sight threatens not only with a spoiled mood, but also with a partial or complete parting with damaged cereals. You can, of course, try to save at least something by sifting through a sieve, but ... Only adults are “sorted out”, but the eggs laid by them, scanty and similar to grains of flour, will easily pass through the holes in the sieve mesh.
Therefore, it is better to look for another solution to the difficult and unpleasant question: “How to get rid of once and for all?”
Who lives on kitchen shelves?
If there are bugs in the kitchen - how to get rid of them quickly and efficiently? You should know that there are plenty of contenders for the contents of kitchen cabinets: bread grinders, red flour eaters. Each of these species, once in favorable conditions, significantly spoils food and actively multiplies. How to get rid of bugs in the kitchen cabinet?
Bread grinders are small bugs (up to 3.7 mm in length), characterized by incredible vitality and fertility. They have a black-brown color of the body and a small, fully armored head. Adults do not feed: larvae cause harm to kitchen supplies.
Penetrating into the nutrient substrate, they lay numerous passages in it. They pupate there, having previously gnawed cradles in places of feeding. Instances that live in flour glue balls from its particles and wait out the period of transformation into adults in them. Approximately 3-4 generations of bread grinders develop during the year, which can be found in kitchen stocks, on windows, walls, and floors of a room only with a large accumulation of them. In small quantities, insects remain hidden in the food substrate and do not appear outside. Bread grinders do not disdain tea, coffee, medicinal plants, book bindings, animal feed, crushed grain mixtures; leave many passages in them and deposit waste products.
Ways for bugs to enter the kitchen
How does it get into the kitchen? Most often, it is brought by the owners themselves in packages with purchased products. Most likely, the cereals on the store shelves were initially contaminated due to the manufacturer's failure to comply with sanitary and hygienic standards for processing and storing products. Thus, having traveled a long way from the warehouse to the store, the bugs that ended up in the same bag with cereals get to the end consumer. How to get rid of flour bugs in the kitchen?
Red flour-eater - for kitchen stocks harm
Do not mind inventorying the stocks of kitchen cabinets red flour-eater - a small insect (1.5-2.5 mm in length) of a rusty-yellow color, characterized by hard wings, a body covered with silky hairs and widely spaced filiform antennae. Like a bread grinder, he prefers to “work” on an industrial scale and lives in mills, cereal and feed mills, bakeries, and pasta factories. It feeds on cereals, rotting flour and grain, provided that the moisture content of the latter is not lower than 15%. During the year at favorable conditions able to develop 4 generations. The life span of adults is 6 months. Gathering in groups, the flour eater increases the moisture content of products, pollutes them with excrement and shells from larvae. How to get rid of flour bugs in the kitchen?
Flour beetle: habitat features
The most common inhabitant of the kitchen area is (otherwise, flour beetle) - a reddish-red beetle, characterized by small (3-4 mm) sizes, short antennae, a strong shell that protects the back and head, and small underdeveloped wings.
At a favorable temperature of + 23-25 ° C, the female beetle is able to give 4 generations in a year, laying 300-350 eggs at a time. In the most prolific individuals, this figure can reach 1000. Flour beetle eggs (short oval, white color) is quite difficult to detect in cereals, as they are covered with a sticky liquid that quickly absorbs particles of flour and dust. Although the female is so prolific that she produces masonry wherever possible: on food, fabrics, in the crevices of cabinets. The hatched larvae immediately crawl in search of food, easily gnaw through packages and settle in stocks of cereals and flour - the most preferred product. Somewhat gratifying is the fact that this species insects self-regulates their numbers. With a significant increase in it, adults and larvae eat eggs and pupae.
Accumulations of mucoed can significantly spoil food supplies. For example, flour during mass infection acquires a dirty color, becomes lumpy, smells bad, tastes unpleasant and is generally unsuitable for consumption. Products damaged by beetles are dangerous to human health and can cause allergic reaction, dysbacteriosis and even poisoning. How to get rid of bugs in the kitchen?
How to get rid of food moth?
An unpleasant surprise in the kitchen is the discovery of food is not distributed as actively as its "colleagues", but it lays eggs in the most unexpected, often hard-to-reach places.
You can determine the presence of a winged pest by carefully inspecting the premises. Gray-brown cocoons can be seen on the walls and under the ceiling; it is easy to see pinkish caterpillars in infected flour and cereals. Such products are unsuitable for consumption, so you will have to part with them. You should also say goodbye to food moths by using one of the methods below.
Flour bugs in the kitchen: ways to fight
If small pests are found in cereals and flour, measures should be taken immediately to eliminate them, without giving time for the reproduction and development of hatched individuals. How to get rid of bugs in cereals and flour in the kitchen?
One of effective ways destruction of the pest is the freezing of infected products in freezer. Not heavily damaged cereals can be calcined in the oven at a temperature of 100-110 ° C for 10-15 minutes, after sifting them. For prevention purposes, it is recommended to heat any purchased cereals in the oven, as they may already be infected with a pest. It is easy to remove bugs from beans and peas, which need to be filled with salt water for several minutes. When the insects emerge, drain the water and dry the clean legumes on a dry cloth. In case of severe damage, it is better to throw away the products. How to get rid of bugs in other ways?
About the order in the kitchen cabinets
The operation to get rid of the bugs will be considered fully completed if you put things in order in the kitchen cabinets. To do this, all shelves should be completely freed from the contents, remove the remnants of spilled cereals, pour boiling water over the cracks, wipe the surfaces with vinegar solution (per liter of water - a tablespoon of vinegar). Then it is recommended to leave the lockers for a day to dry. In the meantime, it is necessary to put the containers for cereals in order: wash them with a solution based on laundry soap, and then treat them with boiling water. Cloth bags in which cereals were stored should be treated with a salt solution and dried without rinsing.
Feverfew to help
How to get rid of flour bugs in the kitchen? To avoid re-infection with bugs, cabinet shelves are recommended to be sprinkled with pyrethrum powder, a natural organic insecticide that is safe for humans and pets, but is a deadly poison for insects. Produced from Dolmatian chamomile, such a remedy blocks the movement of nerve impulses, due to which insects are quickly paralyzed and die. The treatment of problematic surfaces can also be carried out using a spray bottle, into which pour pyrethrum dissolved in water. The advantage of a natural remedy is its permeability: the powder is easy to deliver to hard-to-reach places. Its only drawback is the inability to destroy insect eggs. Therefore, it is recommended to carry out repeated treatments aimed at getting rid of the hatched generation.
How to get rid of a flour bug in the kitchen with folk methods?
Common garlic and bay leaf are good kitchen bug repellents. It is enough to simply place them on the shelves of lockers or in containers with cereals and flour.
Insects also do not tolerate the aroma of nutmeg, so it is recommended to pour the seasoning on a band-aid and attach it to the inner walls of the cabinet.
Preventive measures
It is quite difficult to deal with cereal bugs, so it is better to prevent their invasion of the territory of the kitchen. In order to prevent pests such as a bread grinder, a red flour eater, a flour beetle, it is recommended to constantly maintain cleanliness in the kitchen, regularly ventilate the room and ensure that the air humidity is moderate. After all, moisture is an ideal environment for breeding bugs.
Groats are a product that every housewife always tries to buy with a margin. Consumed slowly, rarely checked for integrity and purity. And at this time, harmful bugs can breed and develop in it.
Therefore, it is not recommended to purchase flour and cereals in large quantities. Immediately after purchase, you should check the products for the presence of bugs, cool them in the freezer for a day and only then pour them into hermetically sealed containers. It is not recommended to store cereals in bags, because bugs can easily gnaw through them.
Dried fruits and nuts should be kept in the refrigerator. Periodically, cereals and flour should be checked for the presence of insects in them, poured onto a dry surface in order to ventilate. When washing the dishes in which cereals are stored, scald with boiling water and wipe dry.