Food moths are not a sign of poor hygiene. In fact, at least households can do something about it if their supplies are nibbled by the little pests. “An infestation in the home rarely occurs through flying in through an open window, but mostly through passive introduction via food or packaging material such as cardboard boxes that are already infested with eggs or larvae,” explains the Federal Environment Agency, explaining the background. Unfortunately, that doesn’t change the problem that once the animals have spread, they are difficult to drive away. And that their legacy can lead to health problems. That’s why you have to fight food moths. The best way to do this is summarized below.
Although they are only a few millimeters in size, they are easy to see due to their brownish color on a white background: Food moths are nocturnal and rest on the walls during the day – this means you can identify the pests quite quickly. The females can fly, but only over short distances once they have been fertilized. Accordingly, they usually crawl or hop when looking for a suitable place for their eggs. And you can already guess what the moths are after: your food, preferably grains and flour, legumes and nuts, rice and seeds, tea and chocolate, dried and dried fruit or even animal feed.
Once they reach their destination, they can’t stop and even bite through paper and plastic bags. After their larvae hatch, they attack your supplies and contaminate them. You can recognize the infestation by thread-like webs that act like thin spider webs and stick the food together. In contrast to moths, the larvae are active during the day, but are difficult to recognize on white walls due to their white coloring. As a result, they spread unhindered if the pests are not recognized in time. The fact is: a female food moth can lay up to 500 eggs, so after a short time you will have a real plague in your house.
Now it’s time to get down to business: To combat food moths, you need a pheromone trap. These are small strips of cardboard that are covered with an adhesive film – they contain a sexual attractant that attracts males willing to mate. Once the pests fall into the trap, they stick to it. To avoid attracting more food moths from outside, keep your windows closed while the pheromone trap is active. Here you get the trap to fight.
Another note: You can also use the trap if you suspect food moths to find out whether the pests have infested your food.
If you don’t like the pheromone trap, you can use parasitic wasps to biologically combat food moths. The animals are so small that they can hardly be seen with the naked eye. Nevertheless, they are very useful in the fight against kitchen pests: after the wasps have hatched, they use the moth eggs to lay their own eggs. This causes the larvae to die – and the parasitic wasps disappear again when there are no more moth eggs. The exact instructions can be found in the packaging. Here you get the parasitic wasps.
To prevent food moths from making themselves comfortable in your kitchen, you can take preventive measures:
Tip: Use an anti-moth spray with natural ingredients such as essential oils. This is where you get the spray.
Even if the food moths themselves are not dangerous to humans, their webs and their droppings are harmful to health. Eating contaminated products can trigger allergies, as well as skin diseases and gastrointestinal diseases. This makes it all the more important to discover and combat pests in a timely manner. Aside from the fact that their legacy is just disgusting.
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