How To Get Rid Of Pantry Moths | Indian Meal Moth Traps That Work

today i'm going to share with you guys how i eradicated the indian meal moths that had infested my pantry indian meal mods also known as pantry moths are really destructive so if you have these in your pantry you want to deal with them as quickly as possible before they destroy your entire food storage i'm going to show you guys everything i did from start to finish and i'll link everything used in the description box below when i spotted my first moth in the pantry i didn't think much of it when i went back into the pantry a couple days later though there were several of them that i could see on the ceiling and underneath some of the shelves so at that point i knew i had a problem i got on google and that's where i discovered that there was even such a thing as pantry mods so at that point i decided to go ahead and start documenting this journey to share with you guys and i got online and ordered a couple of different types of traps i did some research and i'll share all of that with you guys on my journey of figuring out how to get rid of these pests i threw this graphic together quickly for anybody that would like to grab a screenshot to be able to refer back to this later an adult female moth can lay up to 500 eggs in one day or over the span of several days and they usually enter your home during the egg phase so by the time you notice an adult moth in your pantry you already have all four life stages present in your pantry and it can turn into a severe problem quickly the first thing you want to do is grab your vacuum and start sucking up as many of them as you can find they are nocturnal so they will be more active at night but during the day i had no problem seeing a bunch of them chilling on the ceiling or hiding in cracks and crevices along the pantry shelves i checked along the edges of every shelf and underneath every shelf as well as pulling out all of the bins to see if there was anything hiding inside of them when you've finished vacuuming up all of the visible mods in your pantry you want to take your vacuum bag straight out to the outdoor trash bin i have a bagless vacuum so i took mine outside and emptied it outside and then thoroughly cleaned out the inside of the vacuum once i was done with the vacuum i put on some gloves and i grabbed a heavy duty trash bag then it was time to try to figure out where this infestation began they ended up being in one of our bins that contained a bunch of organic nuts that we had bought about a month ago first of all you can see the moth in the bag which is a dead giveaway that there's an infestation in that bag but you can also look for things like webbing inside of the bag larvae crawling in the bag or the tiny little eggs that they leave you can also see the cocoon or the pupae inside of this bag where one of the moths had hatched the next bag that i found that was definitely infested was this bag of banana chips there were multiple pupae inside of this bag as well as larvae and webbing that was extremely visible so i think this is probably a good sign of the beginning of an infestation this might be where they got into our home from but there were a couple of items in this bin that looked like this so whatever it was it was definitely one of these items that we had picked up all at the same time from the same store and put in that same bin about a month beforehand another thing i'd like to point out you can see the holes inside of this bag of peanuts but the larvae can chew holes through plastic bags to get in or out so anything that's in a plastic bag is not safe from infestation and it's your best bet to just throw anything away that's in a plastic bag if you have an infestation once i had the source of the infestation dealt with i moved along and started sorting through some of the other foods in the pantry that i know they would be attracted to they like to go after any type of grains or breads they like chips and crackers and things of that nature so i decided to go ahead and just throw away absolutely everything that was in our chip and our cracker bins at this point you could really inspect something if you're trying to save any foods that you can but we decided just to err on the side of caution because i didn't want to accidentally keep something that had eggs inside of it and then have to deal with this all over again a month from now and as i was cleaning out the crackers i spotted a pair of mating pantry mods crawling across the shelf and as gross as this is i thought it would be worth sharing with you guys so you know what you're looking for this is what will lead to more eggs in your pantry so keep your vacuum on standby and as you're cleaning out the pantry if you see any mods mating or not mating go ahead and vacuum them up so you don't leave an impregnated female to lay up to 500 eggs in your pantry and just continue going through your pantry and like i said there's certain things you want to focus on anything that's in a plastic bag do not leave it in your pantry inspect the package look for signs of infestation determine if it's something that you want to try to salvage if it looks like it's been untouched or if it's something you want to just go ahead and throw away which is what i did with pretty much everything and as i was working on clearing all of this stuff out these mods kept coming out of hiding so once i was done going through all of the stuff that i knew for sure could be a possible infestation issue that they might be able to get into it i decided to go ahead and put out the traps and let some of these suckers get stuck in the traps before i finished going through all of the other canned goods and the canister items that were in this pantry if you can stomach clearing out the rest of your pantry all at once then by all means go for it but i was getting really grossed out and i just could not deal with it any longer after reading a ton of reviews i decided to order the safer and the dr killigan's pantry moth traps the mr killigan's trap is really easy to use you unfold it and then you remove the protective plastic piece that reveals the sticky siding on the inside and the blue stripe in the middle is what releases the pheromones then all you have to do is fold it and then the cardboard fits together the safer trap works the same way with the sticky surface but it has a little blue square that you drop down onto the sticky side and that releases the pheromones i just forgot to film actually setting up that trap i put one of each of these traps up on the top shelf of the pantry and then i also put one of each on top of my countertop in the laundry room where some of the moths had escaped to then a few days later i came back in to check on the traps and finish cleaning out the rest of the pantry the first traps that i'm opening up to show you are the ones that i had put out in the laundry room there weren't near as many moths out in the laundry room but there was still enough of them that the traps needed to be set out there or it would have become an issue and spread into the next room which was the kitchen and you can see that they both worked but you can clearly see that the one on the right has quite a few more mods stuck to the surface than the one on the left then next i opened up the ones that were in the actual pantry and again you can tell that the one on the left caught a few mods but mainly just on the one side where that little pheromone cube was stuck and the one on the right has a ton stuck to the surface it works on all sides of the inside of the trap and you can tell that some of them had just recently gotten stuck to the surface because they're still flapping their wings and are still obviously alive so when you compare all four of these side by side it's pretty clear that although the safer brand traps on the left do work i would say they only slightly work the mr killigan's traps on the right did an outstanding job of luring out and trapping a ton of these moths and again just for a reminder i will link those down in the description box for anybody that's interested now that the traps had done their job and most of the flying pests had been dealt with i was ready to go back in and finish clearing out all of the rest of the food and the food containers that are in the pantry as i cleared out each bin in the pantry i stacked them up and i just set them down on the lower shelves that were now empty and i will get back to those later on then i just continued on sorting through the remaining food that was left in the pantry anything that's in a box even if it's unopened go ahead and open that box throw it away and just take out the items that are inside canned items are safe to be cleaned and kept but if it's a boxed item like a hamburger helper or something like that that has a plastic bag inside thoroughly inspect that plastic bag and make absolutely sure that there's no signs of damage or entry into that bag before deciding to keep it anything that i decided was a keep item i put on one shelf so i can clean everything at the end and move it out of the pantry once i got to the top shelf and started looking through all the canister items i quickly realized that all of these dollar tree canisters were not airtight and that larvae was able to get into some of them so instead of looking to see if they were all contaminated i went ahead and just decided to throw away the contents of all of these dollar tree canisters i knew that these dollar tree canisters weren't going to be expensive airtight canisters but after this whole ordeal i'm likely going to just spend the money to get some nicer airtight canisters and use those instead once it's been long enough and i can restock my pantry now one thing that i found that i am extremely happy to see is these cereal containers that i bought at the beginning of the summer when i did my pantry renovation i did find a larvae on top of this canister that was trying to get inside of the cereal container but the actual inside of them they were all perfectly clear and clean there was no contamination whatsoever so i'm gonna link these down in the description box for you guys if anybody is looking for a reliable type of cereal container this is what i would recommend and this is probably what i will switch to for all of our canisters or at least switch to this brand because they're by far the best i've had i also had some dollar tree canisters that were in the over the door organizer so i went ahead and i threw away everything that was in those and all of the other opened packaging that was on that door organizer as well so at this point the only stuff i had left was all of the unopened condiments and containers and canned good items that i knew i was going to keep and my seasoning and herbs that i still needed to thoroughly examine every item that you decide to keep needs to be thoroughly cleaned before removing it from the pantry i used a 50-50 vinegar water solution in a spray bottle and i sprayed every item and then used a paper towel to wipe everything from top to bottom making sure that there was no eggs or larvae on the outside of each container then anything that had an open lid that something could crawl underneath i removed the lid and inspected the inside of it to make sure that there weren't any larvae or pupae inside of that lid with some of these bottles they have that paper wrapping around the lid and if it was perfectly sealed and nothing could get into that wrapper i didn't worry about it but anything that just had a twist top needs to have the twist top removed and inspected because the larvae can get up underneath those types of lids then as i cleaned and removed each individual item from the pantry i relocated them into an empty and clean cabinet in my kitchen when cleaning your canned items make sure that you really focus along the inside of that lip around the edge of the can pantry moths are known to lay eggs in those little corners of cans and i also found a few pupae in that same area as i was cleaning all of these you may also find them on the underneath of your cans if you use this type of stacked storage like i have in my pantry the mods like to hang from the undersides of the cans and they will make their cocoons on the bottom of the cans as well when i was done with the canned goods i cleaned all of the condiment jars that were left in here before moving them out of the pantry the airtight containers i wiped down really well but did not worry about opening the lid since they should not be able to get into anything that is actually airtight anything that was not airtight or had been opened i removed the lid and i looked for any evidence of any larvae inside of the container and if i saw a speck of something that made me unsure i went ahead and i just threw it away then i did the same thing with all of my seasoning jars and i inspected each one individually and threw away anything that was even slightly suspicious this was a good opportunity for me to go through and throw away some expired seasonings that we had that needed to go anyways and as i looked inside of the seasoning jars i specifically looked for any signs of webbing excess moisture or clumping in the seasoning and any larvae inside of the jar over the next month any of the seasonings that i decided to keep i will keep a close eye on them and if i start to see signs of anything then i'll just go ahead and throw it away and replace it the only thing left in the pantry at this point was the food storage the lazy susans and the rack for my seasoning jars anything like this that you have in your pantry you want to remove it scrub it in hot soapy water making sure to cover every square inch and then leave it out of the pantry at least until you know that the problem is gone and you're ready to move your food back into the pantry once i had everything out of the pantry i went back in with my vacuum cleaner i focused on the edges of the ceiling and the walls and the corners as well as along the corners of the shelves on the top and underneath them this is to help remove any of the pupae that are left in the pantry as well as any moths that might still be lingering although i didn't have really any left at this point and you'll probably also have eggs that you won't necessarily be able to see but they are definitely there and you want to vacuum up as much of that as you can [Music] [Music] take the vinegar water that you've already got mixed up in your spray bottle and add just a couple drops of peppermint oil the vinegar water will help to clean everything in your pantry and the peppermint oil will act as a repellent keeping them away then take that mixture and clean your entire pantry from top to bottom clean the walls making sure to get into the corners then clean the tops and the undersides of all of the shelves you want to make sure that you get into every little crack and crevice be really thorough don't miss anything and take q-tips if you need to to get inside of every little crack any little screw hole anything that a moth could have possibly hidden in or laid eggs or anywhere that a larvae or a pupae might be you want to do this right the first time so you're not back in here a month from now doing this all over again and possibly having to throw away even more food [Music] once i had the walls and the shelves completely scrubbed down i swept the floor and then i used that same peppermint vinegar water mixture and i wiped the floor down using that as well the pantry is completely cleaned out we'll wait a few weeks and then i'll come back in here with that vinegar water peppermint solution and wipe everything down one more time just to be on the safe side before we move any of our food storage back into this pantry if this video was helpful i would love it if you would hit that like button subscribe to my channel and ring the bell for notifications so you don't miss any future content on this channel thank you guys so much for watching and until next time you can check out one of these videos listed right here [Music] you

Channel: The Nifty Nester

Views: 132,280

Keywords: how to get rid of pantry moths, indian meal moth traps, grain moths, flour moths, moths in the pantry, pantry moth traps, indian meal moth, bird seed moths, how to get rid of indian meal moths, how to kill pantry moths, pantry moth larvae on ceiling, get rid of pantry moths, best pantry moth traps, why are there moths in my pantry, how to get rid of indianmeal moths naturally, pantry moth traps diy, indian meal moth infestation, pantry pest, indian meal moth home remedy

Id: Ko8PbHgLKIw

Length: 20min 6sec (1206 seconds)

Published: Sun Nov 21 2021