Today I discovered that our pantry had been invaded by pantry moths.
They have taken up residence in my plain Bakers flour. Thankfully it appears they have not invaded the Rye, Spelt or wholemeal flours or anything else that I can find. However I would have preferred to sacrifice one of these as they are all getting low unlike the 4kgs of flour that has been infested. Grrrrrr.
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| Those little dark things are the caterpillars. |
I am not sure how they got in there as I always freeze any flour or dried goods as soon as I purchase them to kill off any bugs or their eggs. Only after a few days in the freezer do they get put into storage containers. I guess the only explanation is that the container did not get sealed properly. I have cleaned out the pantry so hopefully that is the end of it but I will also buy some moth traps just in case.
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| The nearly full container. |
My question to you all is for suggestions on what to do with all that flour. I do not really want to just throw it out but I also do not want to eat it.
So now I am thinking about what I could cook for the chickens so that at least the flour does not go fully to waste. Obviously I can cook bread but I am wondering if anyone has any other ideas.
What would you do?
Hi Fiona, You could sift the flour to get out as much rubbish as possible and just use it for normal cooking. It is useful protein. Or as you say baking for the chooks is an alternative. I'd probably freeze or refrigerate it until it is all gone. We keep any large supplies in the fridge or freezer and just leave a small amount out for immediate usage. Our bread making wheat is kept in a 20 litre plastic drum and each time we open it to take some out for grinding a small candle is ignited (covered by foil so the lid doesn't melt) and the lid replaced. This burns off the oxygen and leaves CO2. An environment that is unsuitable to weevils and moths. I suppose vacuum packing is another alternative.
ReplyDeleteI always put a few bay leaves into any dry goods containers and this seems to deter moths and weevils. I am not use what you could do with all that flour. I think keeping it might just make the infestation worse.
ReplyDeleteIf you want to make something for the chickens, ours love leftover pastry (uncooked) which is just flour an egg and some water mixed together.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately I don't have any ideas. I try to keep my dry goods to small amounts because the last time I had moths in my pantry, despite my efforts - seriously, how do they get into sealed containers!!! - I had to throw out everything! There are very few times I use insect spray but mosquitoes at 2am and pantry moths are those times!! Good luck!
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