I mistakenly thought that since I am definitely on the clean-freak side (I seriously clean all the time) that I didn't need to worry about bugs. I was so wrong!!
Here is what a pantry moth looks like:
If you want to scream, then you can join me. Because I did.
Tuesday was a crazy day. I spent over two hours entertaining both girls at the doctor while Steven got two sets of x-rays and a new cast. I'm still feeling very overwhelmed, and this was the last thing I needed.
We were getting ready for bed when I noticed a moth fly out of the cupboard. I decided to investigate, and then started screaming when I found tons of moths and little worms in all our food! And, it seriously came out of nowhere. My mom was here last week, and was shocked that it happened, since she had just helped me clean the kitchen and there was no evidence of anything before.
Steven and I stayed up way late going through the cupboards, reading everything we could about how to get rid of them, and throwing out our food. We chucked everything. Every spice. Every cereal, crackers, rice. Everything. We discovered a bag of pecans as the little "home" to the moths. I guess often there are eggs in food packages when you buy something and you don't know until you have a full-blown infestation.
Even though this is just another thing to add on the list of things that have happened in our lives lately, I was pretty proud of myself. Moths seriously freak me out. So much so, that I woke up from a nightmare in the middle of the night last night screaming, "they are everywhere!" Normally, I would have locked myself in the back room and made Steven deal with everything. But... since he has a broken leg, I had to do it. And I did.... even though I definitely freaked out a few times.
However, I think the battle of Paige vs. the Moths has been won by me. I only found one today. Yesterday, I scrubbed and cleaned and vacuumed so much that my hands are raw. And today, I started replacing our food and making sure everything is air-tight and sealed.
Oh... and replacing a whole pantry of food is so expensive. Spices are crazy. We have a long way to go before we actually have enough food to cook with, but things are coming along.
The plus side is I now have the most organized, air-tight pantry around:
You can either laugh or cry, right? We have been doing a lot of laughing lately.
3 comments:
Oh, man! That is the worst! The other day I made rice and found little bugs in it after I cooked it! The worst part was that when I checked the leftover rice I made earlier (and eaten!) there were bugs in that too! (Not as many, though, so I hadn't noticed.) The crazy part is I had the rice in an OXO pop container. I read online that with rice and flour, sometimes you need to put them in the freezer for a few days to kill the eggs. So gross, but thought I'd share so you don't have to deal with this again! Good luck! Wish I was there to help!
i always put my flour in the freezer for at least 24 hours (or two months, depends on if i remember to get it out) when i buy it, because otherwise you bring home weavles from the grocery store!
Good luck!
after reading this post, i immediately heeded you advice. there is absolutely no way my heart could handle dealing with those dang moths! you poor thing. my cupboards are looking awfully tidy now, thanks to you.
my mom was joking that, since you and i are twinsies, matt is gonna break something and my apartment is going to get infested with bugs - sometime within the next 6 months. haha i'm hoping that's not how our twin situation works. that thought makes me freak out. i think you are amazing for handling all these trials with such class. hang in there.
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