I have what I thought was an air tight LaParfiet jar for my brown bread flour, but sure enough I went to use it the other day and found little black bugs. How did they get in if the jar is airtight?
By Mike
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Bugs you find in any grain purchase, either just after purchase or later on, in regular and special flours, grains, cereals, "organics", cake mixes, etc., usually arrive to your home in the actual product in their boxes and bags from the stores. You may not see any bugs in your flour initially but their eggs are definitely in the product and will eventually develop into adults. They do not need water, just the grain, etc., to live.
My husband is an entomologist: he recommends putting all grain and flour etc., purchases in their original packaging in your freezer for 24 hours immediately after you bring them home. The freezing will kill any bugs and their eggs that might travel to your house in your food purchases. Also, if you plan to put flour, etc., in containers, he suggests you wash them well each time they are empty and then place them with the flour in your freezer for 24 hours.
Airtight containers help control infestation in your kitchen by not allowing new bugs, eggs, rodents, etc., in but unless you freeze the new purchase, you will infest earlier product if you add new unfrozen product to the old frozen flours.
Bug, rodent, etc., contamination in all food we buy is unfortunately a fact of living in this world. Manufacturers simply cannot prevent all contamination in their products, no matter how hard they try. Same for canned goods, fresh produce, dairy products, etc. I recently read that each person in the US consumes about a pound of rodent parts each year in their food. Again, simply a fact of life in this crowded world!
I just started vacuum sealing my rice , noodles,and pasta in mason jars,the cereal I bought some large round plastic containers for my cereals, do you think that will work? & other people said put your items in a 5 gallon bucket from Lowes and seal it with the lid on tight. Everything thing doesnt fit I My mason jars,dodo you think the buckets will work?
What is the bug called
I've seen these all over in carpet, clothes, in the kitchen. How to get rid of them?
Your jar, apparently, wasn't airtight.
To keep bugs out of jars I coat the rim of the jar with a soft wax. I actually use the red wax from cheese, but you can get a similar type in the dental care aisle, called "orthodontic wax."
Warm the wax a little and cover the entire top of the rim. Make sure when you put the lid on it contacts this wax all the way around.
The bugs, even little ones, can't crawl through the wax. If they tried they'd get stuck.
I freeze but also Bay Leaf in all flours, rice,barley, any dry goods will work. I transfer all flour from Cardboard boxes or paper bags, bugs love the glue that binds them.
I do what Dinah suggested. I freeze all these products for 24 hrs. Then I put them in clean glass jars. These are the jars with a rubber ring inside the glass top.
They were there when you bought it. Freeze flour and grain for 3 days when you buy it and then transfer to a sealed container.
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