Can pantry moths get into the cupboard shelving material itself?
By jeff from Sacramento, CA
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Use moth balls, good luck.
I just bought the safer sticky traps at Home Depot, and I swear the minute I opened the packet, I had 12 moths swarming me. I really think this is going to work!
I also bought cedar "shims", used to install a door. They are really cheap and even though I don't see the moths in my closet, I want to make sure they stay out.
You can't use Moth Balls or bug sprays in the house, esp around food. You cannot get that chemical smell out again. You have pests laying eggs. Scrub your shelves, if you use contact paper, replace. Scrubbing with a Mr Clean, etc, get a brush into the corners.Then, go to a food coop and get fresh bay leaves. Leave a couple on each shelf. The pesties do not like them. I have used this for years, once ridding our house of the bugs.
Do not put food items in the cupboard without being in a container. Anything grain can have them in. The boxes the food comes in can carry the eggs. Switching out to tupperware, etc is what all my food, cereal, pasta, etc go in. Anything made with grain will be suspect to harboring the pests. Also. don't forget to re-contain your pets food. They also are a source for these bugs.
We have what look like pantry moths (according to all of the images I have looked at online they look like pantry moths to me). However these moths are not interested in our food, nor do they seem to be interested in our linens! I saw one solitary moth in the dog food and there are none in the linen closet. However, they are all over the upper cupboard (right above the linen cupboard) where we store holiday decorations, tents and sleeping bags, even some of my husband's tools! I cannot for the life of me figure why they seem to love this one spot so much and I am having an extremely hard time getting rid of them. I took everything out of the cupboard and sprayed the whole thing with a bleach/water mixture, which seemed to kill the adult moths flying around in there for the time being. However, it took only hours before I saw a few hanging out in there again!
I smash every single moth I see and the worms as well. Today I bought moth balls and dumped the entire box in there along the three shelves, taped the whole thing up around the edges of the cupboard doors with duct tape to make a semi-air tight seal and we will see if this works. I must say though I checked the ceiling of the area right outside of the cabinet a mere 5 hours later and had to smash about 8 of them hanging out up there so my hopes are not very high. I will be trying essence of peppermint next if the moth balls do not work. If anyone knows what type of moths look like pantry moths yet do not eat food or linens and how to get rid of them please please please let me know as these things are driving me insane!
I tried washing everything, bay leaves, threw away everything but canned food, and even used the traps. I can hear them laughing at me. Today, I took almost everything out of my kitchen and and am using a bug bomb.
I have adjustable shelves in my pantry and found out that the moths are nesting in the small holes running up the sides of the cabinet. I used tweezers to pull out the webbing from each hole and am going to use a q-tip to coat each hole with peppermint oil. I'm not sure if it will work yet but I wanted to let everyone know about their hiding spot since I have been fighting them for so long and never thought about those little holes in the cabinet.
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