How to keep cereals from moths and bugs. secrets of storing different cereals

Types of insects that may be in cereals

In order to start taking action, you need to know what bugs are found in cereals.
The names of some pests sound funny to the outside ear: flour beetle, Suriname flour beetle, pretend beetle, rice weevil, Moorish booger and dust louse. But the appearance of such insects in cereals is a real disaster in the house. It prefers a substrate with elevated temperature and humidity, and is found during storage of rice, oats, wheat, barley and soybeans. In addition to grain, it eats bread products and flour, preferably coarsely ground. If the damage is severe, the flour becomes lumpy and unsuitable for food.

In the photo there is a flour beetle

It got its name from its ability to pretend to be dead. At the moment of danger, he tucks his antennae and paws, falling from the object on which he was crawling. There are about 20 species of such beetles. A pretend thief, a robber, a robber, a pretend little one - all these insects are similar to each other. They eat plant products, medicinal raw materials, cereals and flour.

In the photo there is a pretend beetle

. Despite the harmless name, it is an extremely dangerous and harmful creature. At home you can find it in cupboards in jars of cereals. It destroys not only rice, but also stocks of other cereals and food products. It does not neglect pearl barley, dry flour products, it is found in corn, beans, crackers, and wheat grains.

Pictured is a rice weevil

Another flour beetle, which also spoils dried fruits, feeds on dry meat and pharmaceutical medicinal plants. The insect easily penetrates loosely closed boxes, bags and other containers with bulk products. The photo clearly shows the bugs in the rump. Soon it will be spoiled by their excrement.

In the photo there is a Surinamese mucoed

Africa is considered its homeland and is distributed everywhere. Damages cereals, confectionery, cereals. But he prefers to eat flour. Both larvae and adult beetles are capable of chewing through bags, sieves, paper and cardboard packaging.

Pictured is a Moorish booger

Damages stocks of flour, oatmeal and other bulk products, clogging them with waste products. A favorite delicacy is cereals that have been preserved for a long time, as well as anything that begins to rot or mold.

The photo shows a dusty louse

Beetles appear in cereals or flour, as well as in nuts, dried fruits, beans, peas and even tea, not because of the untidiness of the housewife or uncleanliness in the kitchen cabinet, if they were not there before. Bugs appear from outside.

From a pack bought in a store, from cereal taken from a neighbor or relatives, from dried fruits brought as a treat that were already infested with bugs.

This photo shows that the bugs that are in the cereal are not always easy to see!

Why do cereals get bugs? The reason is unscrupulous checks at enterprises when packing cereals and flour, and poor initial processing of grain. Grain must be processed in a special way before becoming cereal in order to exclude the possibility of the presence of living organisms and their larvae in it.

Another reason is the poor quality of work of the control bodies monitoring the quality of products. Any low-quality, contaminated batch of cereal or flour must be rejected and not allowed for sale.

Otherwise, bugs appear in flour or cereals, and people have to think about how to get rid of them.

What to do if there are bugs in cereals or flour? To know how to get rid of bugs in cereals and flour, you need to know who exactly you need to fight.

Most often, flour beetles and food moths are found in cereals and flour.

The Surinam mucoedis is an insect of the order Coleoptera, a brown pest. It lives in granaries, mills, shops, houses and apartments.

In its development, the mucoed goes through several stages: egg, larva, pupa, and adult. The larva is very small in size - no more than 0.9 mm, so it is very difficult to detect. The mukoed lives from 0.5 to 3 years, laying up to 600 eggs.

Under favorable conditions (air temperature 25-27 degrees and humidity about 65%), the insect reproduces 2-3 times faster than at lower temperatures and humidity.

The Indian food moth is a small butterfly, up to 1 cm long. It lives only 2-3 weeks, but during this time it manages to lay up to 400 eggs, which then become caterpillars. The latter spoil the food by eating everything that is nearby.

After a few weeks, the grown larvae become pupae, and these, in turn, become adult butterflies, ready to produce new offspring.

Both flour eaters and moths are very tenacious, even in frost they do not die immediately. This must be taken into account in order to understand how to get rid of bugs in flour and cereals.

Is it possible to eat cereals or flour if there are bugs in it?

One of the most common questions that arises among people who encounter insects in the kitchen: if there are bugs in the cereal, can it be eaten? Seeing that there are insects in cereals or flour, it is unlikely that anyone will want to eat them. But if we ignore the psychological component, is it possible to sort out the cereal, wash it and be sure that there are no bugs?

The answer to this question is negative. The fact is that even if you sort through the cereal and remove all the bugs, the larvae may simply not be noticed. They are small and have an inconspicuous color.

In addition, the cereal contains waste products of bugs, caterpillars and larvae: feces, dead larvae, husks that remain during degeneration into a pupa or butterfly.

The situation is somewhat different with flour. It can be sifted into a fine sieve, through which neither larvae nor debris left by bugs will pass. This is one way to get rid of bugs in flour.

What bugs are found in the kitchen and how do they get there?

It’s not enough to discover that there are bugs in flour and cereals, damaging products with lightning speed. To choose effective pest control products, you need to clearly know what type they belong to. There are several main types of bugs that damage bulk products:

bread grinder;
flour bug;
red mucous eater;
food moth.

Bread grinders are miniature light brown bugs that can fly; they most often settle in cereals; they enjoy baked goods, old medicinal herbs, as well as tea and coffee with great pleasure. They enter the apartment with contaminated store products, as well as animal feed.

Flour bugs settle in flour more often than in any other product; they can often be found in bags of starch. Insects simply penetrate boxes in the kitchen with bulk products, including packages of rye, rice flour, rolled oats and semolina. Infrequently, you can see pests in dried fruits, rice or buckwheat.

The peculiarity of insects is the ability to reproduce quickly. Female beetles camouflage their oviposition in crevices of furniture in the kitchen, in cereals, flour, and on cabinet shelves. A new generation of pests quickly spreads throughout the home in search of food sources.

Where do bugs come from?

Insects have several ways to get into your home. Most often they are brought along with products (cereals, dried fruits, flour), usually purchased in bulk. They can also enter a room through an open window or ventilation, since they weigh little and can fly. Arriving at a person’s home, arthropods quickly spread throughout all food cupboards. The most common pests are:

Surinamese mucoed. Small beetles with an elongated body and rather long, segmented antennae.
Bread grinder. Small brown beetles with a short body, distributed everywhere.
Mealworm. Dark brown or black very small bugs
Rice weevils. The insect is so small that it can be mistaken for an ant, but if you want to look at it under a magnifying glass, you will see an elongated head and a shell with light spots.

Food moth. These tiny butterflies can not only crawl in food, but also fly around the house, so they quickly infect more and more new food packages. All of these insects are incredibly prolific. They can lay eggs in cracks on any surface, such as cereals, food packaging or bags in which food is transported.

Is it possible to eat this cereal?

If you find cereal that has bugs in it, don’t even think about whether it can be used, but throw it away immediately. Contaminated products contain the remains of chitinous shells, excrement, and various forms of insect development. Bacteria and fungi settle in such cereals and find an environment for development.

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The remains of shells covered with bristles are not digested in the digestive tract of humans and can cause irritation and inflammation of the stomach. Guanine and scleroproteins that are part of tick waste are not absorbed by any organism. In grain affected by pests, uric acid is formed in large quantities, which can cause a number of diseases in humans.

If there are bugs in rice, buckwheat, oatmeal or any other cereal, do not use it. Damage to the body is not detected immediately after eating spoiled cereals. The process of undermining is hidden, cumulative and gradual. As a result of such nutrition, amino acid metabolism in the body is disrupted, the number of red blood cells and hemoglobin in the blood decreases, which leads to lethargy, weakness, and sometimes more serious consequences. Therefore, if there are bugs in the cereal, then it is better to get rid of it than to have health problems. The same applies to flour.

Theoretically, flour containing bugs can be used, but is it worth it? No matter how you sift it, there will still be excrement in it. For example, flour damaged by the Moorish booger darkens, acquires an unpleasant odor and becomes unsuitable for use in cooking. If you make dough from such flour, it will not rise well and the bread will turn out low and soggy.

People are so accustomed to cereals lying on store shelves that they buy without thinking, just by looking at the price or seeing a familiar manufacturer. However, so that you don’t have to think later about whether you can eat cereal if there are bugs in it, you should be responsible when choosing such an important product.

Knowing some subtleties you will not waste time and money in vain:

When purchasing, be sure to look at the manufacturing date. The longer the cereal sits, the more likely it is that it will begin to deteriorate or that moths will appear in it.
The product should not have any foreign odors, otherwise it is spoiled and by purchasing it you will not be protected from the appearance of black bugs.
High-quality cereals contain no impurities or husks. Crushed particles in whole grains indicate improper production and the presence of pests that have already begun to “gnaw” the product.
The cereal should not have lumps. Their presence indicates that the product was stored near water, and it gained moisture or grain moths appeared in it.

After purchase, cereals should be stored in dry containers without foreign odors with tight lids that do not allow moisture and pests to pass through. Having discovered occupants in one of the cereals, you need to check all supplies, wash, dry and ventilate kitchen cabinets.

Since you will not be able to completely get rid of bugs in flour and cereals, without a doubt, throw away the spoiled product. This is the only thing you can do in this situation if you are responsible about your health.

Black bugs and other insects in flour and cereals are a common problem. When they appear, they quickly infest everything, and a few days of delay can lead to a long time to remove the pests. They not only spoil food, but can also cause poisoning and allergic reactions.

Preventive measures: how to prevent infection?

Simple precautions will help you avoid such an unpleasant problem as kitchen pests.

To prevent bugs from infesting flour and cereals, they must be stored at medium humidity in a well-ventilated area;
You need to make sure that there are no raw or undried foods (dried fruits, vegetables, wet cereals) in the kitchen cabinets. If there are any, then the mucoed will definitely settle in them;
It is mandatory to regularly inspect products and shelves. Make sure that cereals do not sit for a long time; long-term storage is the main cause of insects.
Keep cloves, bay leaves and matches in your kitchen cupboard to repel pests.
Store cereals and grains in plastic or glass containers with an airtight lid.
If you notice the first signs of spoilage of food, immediately throw it away or rinse or sift through a sieve.
Carry out general cleaning at least once a month using disinfectants.

Before we move on to discussing the question of how to get rid of cereal bugs in the kitchen, let's take a closer look at the “opponents”. Insects, whose vital needs so unfortunately coincided with our interests, belong to one of the following varieties:

flour beetles;
bread grinders;
food moth;
red mucoeds.

Naturally, the longer the little black bugs in the kitchen go unnoticed, the more food will be destroyed. Khrushchaki reproduce very quickly, laying their eggs in a variety of places. Newborn larvae immediately begin to invade nearby “deposits”. We will tell you below how to deal with bugs in cereals and flour.

Other types of harmful insects are much less common. The mole is easy to spot. Its adults can reach 10 cm in length. Outwardly, these cereal beetles resemble silver butterflies. Such “guests” enter the apartment through ventilation and windows. The object of their attention is products stored in the public domain.

Bread grinders and flour eaters prefer to settle in industrial enterprises. When it comes to these insects, the problem of how to get rid of insects in cereals concerns more the personnel of the above organizations. However, unfortunately, ordinary citizens also have to deal with them. Grinders are small flying white bugs in the kitchen that can measure up to 3mm.

Their target is usually bread and flour products: biscuits, cookies, etc. In this regard, they pose the greatest danger to bakeries and flour mills. Grinders enter residential buildings through bags of food or animal feed. In addition to bakery products, these food bugs happily consume coffee, tea, dry plants, animal feed and even book bindings. So if they happen to be your guest, it's not just your kitchen cabinets that may need a major cleaning.

How to get rid of flour eater is also a relevant question mainly for owners of food enterprises. These miniature red insects can only feed on rotten grain or flour. If the humidity of the product is below 15%, it is not in danger. How to get rid of mucoed in an apartment? Very simple. You just need to throw away substandard food in a timely manner.

To prevent insects in cereals from complicating your life by requiring a number of operations to destroy them, you can follow simple recommendations regarding the prevention of their appearance. These include:

Warm up the purchased cereals in the oven at low temperature for half an hour.
Freezing bulk products in the freezer for 24 hours (use dry, ventilated packaging).
Dried fruits are treated with boiling water, followed by washing and storing exclusively in the refrigerator.
Thorough inspection of purchased products (including vacuum packaging) with disposal of cereals and flour with signs of contamination.

Bulk materials should be stored in perforated polyethylene or closed glass containers. As an alternative, metal boxes and ecological bags made of natural linen are suitable.

One of the reasons why bugs appear in flour and cereals is failure to comply with the shelf life of products. To avoid creating conditions favorable for pests, it is worth buying cereals and other bulk products, as well as dried fruits, coffee and tea with a minimum supply.

It is believed that rice, semolina, flour and buckwheat can be stored for no more than six months; oatmeal and millet can be stored for no more than 4 months due to their high fat content.

The record holder for shelf life is polished rice. Many varieties become even better after several years of storage, acquiring additional taste.

If you still cannot avoid contamination of food in the kitchen, you can get rid of bugs in cereals, flour and spices in several ways.

Bugs in cereals - how do they get into our products? Prevention measures

Since all more or less decent and self-respecting manufacturers heat-treat their products and supply them in sealed packages (although a couple of times I found bugs in such purchases), the most likely path to our kitchens lies through dried apricots, apricots, cereals, dried fruits and pasta from artisans. Most often we buy such products at markets and bazaars. The most reliable way to prevent pests at home is to immediately treat such products after purchase. And of course, try not to buy cereals, flour and other semi-finished products from dubious sellers by weight. My advice to you is to buy well-packaged and sealed products from reputable manufacturers who are responsible for quality. Although, again, I repeat, this is not a 100% guarantee.

At home, such products should be stored in tightly closed glass or tin containers. You also need to ensure that the food inside is dry and ventilate it periodically.

Chemicals in pest control

If there are bugs in the cereal, what should you do when the previous methods above do not give the desired effect? In such cases, it makes sense to use chemicals. The active drugs are Karbafos and Antizhuk. The second has a universal effect, helping to cope not only with kitchen bugs, but also with wood bugs that damage furniture, windows, laminate and parquet. The drug must be used with extreme caution, following the instructions.

Another remedy against pests, Rogneda, is a powerful antiseptic that allows you to dispose of a number of domestic insects, including mucous beetles, weevils, cockroaches and ants.

We suggest you read How to get rid of bugs in flour and cereals: what to do if there are bugs?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NzJAWDvm5Zw

You can also remove bugs from the kitchen using the drug “Lovin Fire Protection”, which allows you to achieve a quick effect. The product has a high level of toxicity and is used when there are no animals or children at home.

Bread grinder

It is found in bakeries, where they forget about basic hygiene and disinfection methods and, perfectly adapting to almost any environment, ends up with the products in homes. The size of the insect is 3 millimeters in length, it flies perfectly, which allows it to quickly move from place to place and, because of this, it is more difficult to eliminate. Usually he eats bread, but he can also enjoy rice, buckwheat, tea, animal food and even an old book.

Mucoed

Prefers flour, cereals and grains. It is very voracious, despite its tiny size - 2 millimeters in length. The flour beetle larva is even smaller, so it is difficult to notice it right away: black dots found in flour are a sign of the presence of mucoed larvae in it. The beetle is very prolific, producing offspring up to 7 times a year in large quantities. Therefore, in just a couple of months, flour can turn into a breeding ground for these insects. The ideal environment for mucoed is high humidity and warmth.

Flour beetle

This is a small insect up to 4 millimeters long, reddish-brown in color. It multiplies rapidly, and settles not only in flour and cereals, but also in furniture and dishes. Breeding a beetle is very difficult, as it is unpretentious to living conditions and is hardy.

food moth

She looks like a simple moth. The length of its body does not exceed 1 centimeter. It is characterized by high fertility (over five hundred eggs in two weeks, from which caterpillars hatch). The moth devours cereal reserves at high speed. Her ability to hide, fly and disguise herself as dark objects makes her virtually invulnerable.

Weevils

They can appear in literally all products: cereals, flour, bread, dried fruits, fruits and vegetables. They look like small bugs, about 5 millimeters in size with a long proboscis. Weevils can fly, changing their location depending on changes in environmental conditions, and also easily climb walls. The pest produces offspring up to 6 times a year. They settle everywhere: remote corners of the kitchen cabinet, containers of cereals, bed linen, baseboards, cracks.

Folk remedies to help fight insects

Our grandmothers successfully coped with the problem described, using the means that were always at hand. Popular methods of fighting include:

An effective insect repellent is prepared from pharmaceutical pyrethrum. The powder is sprinkled on all shelves and in kitchen cabinets every day for a week. Insects cannot tolerate the smell of the powder, so after the specified period the beetles die.
Strong odors are the main means of control, therefore, if beetles appear in flour and cereals, heads of garlic, bay leaves or nutmeg are placed on the shelves.
Cotton pads soaked in lavender plant oil also do a good job. Insects are afraid of the smell of clove, fir, and rosemary oil. Crushed leaves of wormwood and walnut are also used.

Lavender essential oil is a folk remedy for bugs in cereals

Due to the fact that bugs enter the home from store products, you should carefully study the range of products offered. For example, if you buy cereal by weight, then you need to look into the bag, stick your hand into it and sift rice, buckwheat, or any other millet or grain through your fingers. If there are insects in it, they will be visible. You can also spot uninvited guests in packaged products. To do this, turn the bag towards the light source and shake it slightly, pouring in the cereal. Using this procedure, you can see insects if they are inside.

Read also: How to get rid of midges in the kitchen

Thermal fighting - what effect does it give?

Weevils

What to do if bugs still appear in flour and cereals?

Disposal

The main method of combating the bug is the disposal of affected supplies. Of course, it’s a great pity for spoiled flour or cereal, but if there are insects in it, it means that a couple more days will pass and they will crawl throughout the house. Therefore, it is urgently necessary to tie the bag tightly and put it in another bag and take it to the trash.

After disposal, it is necessary to wash kitchen shelves and cereal storage containers (if any) with bleach, soda or vinegar. After treatment, be sure to rinse the surfaces with water.

All types of insects die at temperatures above 50 degrees. This can be either boiling water or steam treatment. This method is good for eliminating bug nests in baseboards and crevices that cannot be reached with chemicals and sanitation.

To remove bugs directly from cereals, you can fry them in the oven at a temperature of about 50-70 degrees for 20 minutes. Or put it in the freezer for several hours. Insects die at temperatures below 15 degrees.

When the larvae and adults are destroyed, it is necessary to thoroughly rinse the grains (beans, beans, nuts) with water and wait for the pests to surface. Then, drain the water and rinse the product again so that there are no larvae left in it. After heat treatment, it is better to sift flour and small grains through a sieve 2-3 times.

Chemicals

On open kitchen surfaces, it is better to use special chemicals, which are sold in abundance in hardware stores. Just don’t buy simple remedies for cockroaches and ants to fight the bug. In this case, specialized products are needed, for example, “Antizhuk” or “Karbofos”.

“Anti-bug” helps in the fight against any bug, be it cereal or wood, that damages windows and furniture. The drug is quite effective, but be sure to read the instructions before use, as it is toxic.

To remove insects, you can use “Rogneda” - a powerful antiseptic that can destroy weevils, mucoeds, as well as ants and cockroaches.

Another effective remedy is Lovin Fire Protection. The drug kills the beetle in the shortest possible time, but it must be scattered in places inaccessible to animals, as it is a powerful poison.

Folk recipes

Recipe 2. Mix boric acid, flour and powdered sugar in equal proportions, which serves as an excellent bait. Scatter the mixture in the habitats of the bugs.

Recipe 3. Insects are afraid of the smell of bay leaves, garlic, pepper and sulfur. It is enough to put a sprig of bay leaves in the kitchen cabinet or lay out simple matches, and reliable protection against pests will be created.

When there is neither the desire nor the ability to fight the increasing population of harmful insects in bulk products in the kitchen, it is worth moving on to a radical method - recycling damaged cereals.

Packages, sacks, containers with bugs are carefully packed in sealed cellophane and taken out of the house.

If there are bugs in the cereal, you can try to remove them by raising the temperature to 50 degrees Celsius. We are talking about treating containers with pests with boiling water or steam. The method is especially effective for removing pests in hard-to-reach places.

Ways to fight

There are various ways to combat food moths. Most often, store-bought repellents are used, as well as folk remedies.

Before you get rid of pests, you need to remember a few important rules:

the bulk mixture must be sifted or sorted by hand;
if insect larvae are visible, the groceries should be thrown away and under no circumstances should they be eaten or given to animals, as this may lead to poisoning;
You can protect the product from moths by heating it - to do this, place the baking sheet with cereal in the oven preheated to 60 ° for 1.5-2 hours;
food moths do not tolerate not only high, but also low temperatures, therefore, to prevent pests, it is recommended to freeze food in the freezer for 24-48 hours;
An important condition for storing bulk mixtures is complete sealing, so they should be stored in metal or glass jars with a tight-fitting lid.

In the cupboard with cereals, it is imperative to carry out sanitary and hygienic treatment, wash the walls, shelves and doors with a solution of vinegar or laundry soap. Acetic acid should be left for several hours, then rinsed off with warm water.

If there are bugs in the flour, can it be used?

If you are thinking about how to get rid of bugs in the kitchen and at the same time do not want to throw away spoiled food entirely, the processing should be as thorough as possible. In the case of flour, you will need a sieve with the smallest mesh possible. Not only adults should remain on the grill, but also the larvae and debris they produce.

However, it is not enough to simply remove insects in flour in the kitchen. To gain complete confidence in the safety of purified food, it must be subjected to thorough heat treatment. There are two ways to influence insects with temperature. You can finally get rid of the flour bug by placing the sifted mixture in the oven.

What to do if insects are found in cereals? How to get rid of them without throwing away the entire product. In such situations, the cleaning process is even easier. Simply pour salt water over the rice, beans or beans and leave for a few minutes. After some time, all the bugs in the cereal will separate from the main mass and float up, as well as their derivatives.

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Restorative actions make sense only when only a small part of the main mass is affected. If insects in cereals or flour have left behind an impressive “web” of yellow worms, you should come to terms with the loss and do everything to ensure that a similar situation does not happen again. Spoiled food should be thrown away along with its container. The bag or sack is carefully packed in sealed cellophane and only then taken out of the house.

Before you completely remove the bugs that have infested in cereals and cupboards, you need to throw away all the cereals in which they were found. Some people cook this cereal and feed it to backyard birds, which are not afraid of bugs; this is their daily food.

You cannot limit yourself to simply getting rid of contaminated products. After all, larvae can be on packages with other products that were lying nearby, on doors, and in the corners of cabinets.

The next thing you should definitely do when fighting bugs is to wash the cabinet with detergent and then treat it with vinegar. Banks in which spoiled cereals were stored must also be processed.

In order not to think about how to remove bugs from cereals or flour, you can take some measures that will prevent them from appearing and multiplying.

Pests cannot tolerate strong odors. Therefore, garlic, bay leaves, and cloves placed in cabinets will help prevent the appearance of bugs.

If you buy cereal or flour in a store, you can also bring insects home. To prevent this, you can put the bags in the freezer for a while or store them permanently in the refrigerator.

Many thrifty owners are interested in what to do if there are bugs in the rice. Is it possible to eat it or is it better to immediately throw it away out of harm’s way? Ideally, spoiled products should be disposed of. Elementary disgust has not yet been abolished, in addition, even a mass thoroughly cleaned of adult individuals may contain the remnants of their vital activity.

Bugs in rice. Is it possible to eat?

Recently I discovered bugs in my rice supplies. If you choose them, can you then eat this rice? It’s a shame to throw it away - there’s still 5 kilograms of cereal.

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Thanks for the question.

If you find an insect in the cereal, this means that it also contains waste products of this “guest”.

By washing rice, you can “expel” the pest, but you will not be able to get rid of its excrement. It is unlikely that anyone will be pleased to eat a culinary dish with the understanding that someone’s body, even small (but there are many of them), has left its secretions in it.

The presence of granary pests in food products is not acceptable. The rice needs to be thrown away.

Take a look at the cereals that were nearby; perhaps the insect managed to set up its home there too.

The presence of granary pests in food products is not acceptable. The rice needs to be thrown away.

How to get rid of insects in cereals and flour

Having dealt with the products, they proceed to the next stage - the destruction of traces of insect activity. If this is not done, then the question of how to get rid of brown bugs in the kitchen will arise before you with unenviable regularity. Parasites lay their eggs in a variety of places, so their larvae can appear anywhere in the food cabinet.

To ensure that little brown bugs in the kitchen don’t have a chance, you need to thoroughly disinfect all shelves and containers located on them. The cabinet is completely emptied of bags and containers, after which all food debris (spilled flour, cereal, etc.) is carefully swept out. The latter need to be flushed down the toilet. Never be frugal. Even if there are no beetles in the flour, traces of their presence may remain.

The shelves are wiped with a vinegar solution. One tablespoon of vinegar for a liter of water is enough. When there are bugs in your kitchen cabinet, getting rid of them is not so easy. They leave eggs in almost imperceptible crevices, so heat treatment will also be required. All places where there is even the slightest suspicion of holes should be poured with boiling water.

During the procedure called “fighting beetles in cereals”, it is necessary to pay sufficient attention to the containers used to store products. The jars are thoroughly washed with laundry soap and then doused with boiling water. Bags and bags made of fabric are treated with saline solution. Once they dry out, the beetles in the rice will definitely not be able to lay eggs. There is no need to rinse the material.

If you are not sure that you have managed to finally get rid of black bugs in the kitchen, you can use folk remedies. The first method is to use homemade bait. Mix fine grains with powdered sugar and brown sugar in equal proportions. The resulting composition is laid out on paper sheets and placed on shelves. This mixture is completely safe for us, but it really helps to get rid of bugs in the kitchen in cereals and flour.

The second option is to purchase pyrethrum at the pharmacy, made from chamomile (Persian, Caucasian). You can simply sprinkle the powder on the shelves or pour it into linen bags. This very effective remedy for bugs in cereals also does not pose any threat to human health.

It is quite natural that when thinking about how to get rid of insects in cereals, the possibility of using chemicals is considered last. Moreover, as a rule, it is possible to cope with the problem with “clean” means. But if the measures described above do not bring results, the following drugs can help get rid of midges in cereals:

"Anti-bug";
chalk “Mashenka”;
"Karbofos".

What to do if there are bugs in the kitchen and your financial options are limited? Chalk "Mashenka" costs 5-6 times cheaper than the next most affordable "Karbofos". To repel insects, you only need to coat the inside corners of the cabinets. Antizhuk is the most expensive, but it has the highest efficiency on this list.

The advantage of Karbofos is the variety of forms: tablets, aerosol, powder, liquid. If you decide to get rid of bugs in cereals and flour in the kitchen using chemicals, carefully follow the instructions. It is important that the treated areas are inaccessible to animals. The poison, designed for small parasites, is poison for both dogs and cats.

Defeating this little pest of mucous is not as easy as it seems at first glance. The fact is that they lay their eggs in any place and are completely unnoticeable.

You may not even see them on a bag of spoiled cereal, where, after you shake it out, they continue to multiply. There is no effective way to get rid of brown bugs in the kitchen, but we will try to give you some tips.

You'll need

Disinfectant;
Glass jars with lids;
Bay leaf;
Muscat;
Garlic.

Stages

All infected packages should be scanned. Even if there are not many bugs, you will have to throw away the cereal, since the eggs will still remain. Look at flour, unopened bags, crackers, and indeed all bread and cereal products. The favorite delicacy of these bugs is flour, so it is better to throw it away immediately.
Thoroughly rinse the cabinets with hot water and vinegar or Domestos or any other disinfectant. For complete destruction, it is better to do this procedure several times. Cereals that have not been contaminated should be placed in plastic bags and put on the balcony or in the refrigerator for a couple of weeks. After this time, making sure that no bugs have appeared, pour the cereal into a glass container with lids. How to get rid of kitchen bugs? We've almost got it done.

Place bay leaves in the cabinets, peel the garlic and place in the corners. Sprinkle nutmeg onto the adhesive plaster and also place it in the corners of the cabinet.

Prevention measures

Let's assume that you have destroyed the bugs and your cereals have been left in the cold for the allotted time.

How can we avoid such surprises in the future?

Make bags from canvas material. Boil them in a strong salt solution for 30 minutes. Let it also cool in the solution and only then squeeze out the bags. Then you should dry them at room temperature and iron them with a hot iron. Bugs will no longer appear in bags treated with salt in this way.
You can also bring bugs from the store, so after you have bought the cereals, it is best to place them in the freezer for several days. It is better to store nuts and raisins in the refrigerator, and cereals in bags or glass jars. How to get rid of bugs in the kitchen is not as difficult a problem as it seems.

Basic control measures

There are general rules for fighting insects that all housewives, without exception, need to know. These include:

Small portions of food contaminated with insects are not thrown away. They are sifted through a sieve and then heated in the oven at 110 degrees.
If bugs infest in flour or semolina, the bags with them are placed in the refrigerator (in the winter, the products are taken out to the balcony and left there for a day). Pests quickly die from the cold.
If insects infest cereals, peas, and other legumes, it is recommended to salt warm water and pour it into a container with contaminated products. Ten minutes is enough for all the insects to float to the surface of the saline solution. After such a procedure, the water is drained and the products are well dried.
If most of the products are infected with bugs, you should not take risks and liquidate all stocks. They store insect waste products that are dangerous to human health.

Read also: How to get rid of bugs in the kitchen

Attention! After the contaminated cereals are thrown away, the furniture must be treated. The fact is that some pests, as mentioned above, like to lay larvae in furniture dust, so thorough cleaning of the cabinets is indispensable. To do this, prepare a vinegar solution (a tablespoon per liter of water). All interior surfaces of kitchen cabinets are thoroughly washed with this solution. First, all hard-to-reach places are scalded with boiling water. If beetles appeared in cereals that were stored in plastic containers, then the emptied dishes are thoroughly washed with soap and then dried well. If contaminated products were stored in canvas bags, they are soaked in well-salted water and then dried. The water will evaporate, leaving salt, which will clog the tissue gaps. Such measures make it possible to further prevent the reappearance of bugs in the croup.