How To Kill And Get Rid Of Pantry Moths

Pantry Moth Facts

Indian Meal Moth

The Indian Meal Moth, also known as Plodia interpunctella, also spelled Indianmeal Moth, is a pyraloid moth of the family Pyralidae. Other common names are North American High-flyer and Pantry Moth; less specifically, it may be referred to as "flour moth" or "grain moth". The Almond Moth (Cadra cautella) is commonly confused with the Indianmeal Moth.

Its larvae (caterpillars) are commonly known as "waxworms" like those of its relatives, though they are not the particular waxworms often bred as animal food. They are a common grain-feeding pest found around the world, feeding on cereals and similar products.

Adults are 8-10 mm in length with 16-20 mm wingspans. The outer half of their forewings are bronze, copper, or dark gray in color, while the upper half are yellowish-gray, with a dark band at the intersection between the two. The moth larvae are off-white with brown heads. When these larvae mature, they are usually about 12 mm long.

The entire life cycle of this species may take 30 to 300 days. Female moths lay between 60 and 400 eggs on a food surface, which are ordinarily smaller than 0.5 mm and not sticky. The eggs hatch in 2 to 14 days. The larval stage lasts from 2 to 41 weeks, depending on the temperature.

The Indian Meal Moth larvae has been known to infest a wide range of dry foodstuffs of vegetable origin, such as cereal, bread, pasta, rice, couscous, flour, spices or dried fruits and nuts. More unusual recorded foods include chocolate and cocoa beans, coffee substitute, and cookies. The food they infest will often look like they've been webbed together.

Once larvae or moths have been found, it is imperative to throw out all food sources that are not in very tightly sealed containers. The moths are able to get into surprisingly tight spots, including sealed bags simply by chewing through them. They are also notoriously difficult to get rid of, and can crawl on ceilings and spin cocoons in rooms other than the kitchen or pantry where they hatched. Lastly, instar larvae are able to travel significant distances before they pupate. When seeking the source of an infestation, the search cannot be limited to the immediate area where pupae are discovered.

None of the stages of the organism (eggs, larvae, adults) is very temperature-tolerant and all can be killed by a week of freezing or by brief heating in a microwave or conventional oven when such treatment is practical.

Nontoxic traps are also available to inhibit the development of adult moths and precipitate their destruction. For example, one type of trap is a triangular box with a lure inside and sticky walls. These traps are generally known as pheromone traps. In this case male moths are attracted inside by the female pheromone (the lure) and then get stuck against the sticky walls inside of the box.

Moths often do not even need a lure, as common glue traps sometimes work well to reduce the number of adults.

However, the efficiency of such traps is highly doubtful as they only capture males, and usually only a small number of these, while adult females, eggs and larvae are unaffected, enabling a possible reinfestation. Thus it is recommended to first eliminate the source of infestation followed by larvae, eggs and eventual moths in the environment.

Augoumois Grain Moth

The Augomois Grain Moth, also referred to as Sitotroga cerealella, is a species of gelechioid moth. It is the type species of its genus Sitotroga, placed in the subfamily Pexicopiinae of the twirler moth family (Gelechiidae). Formerly, it was included in the "Chelariinae", which more recent authors do not separate from the Pexicopiinae and usually even do not consider a distinct tribe ("Chelariini") within them.

It has a nearly global distribution today, including essentially all of Europe as well as such far-flung places as Australia, Benin, Brazil, China, Indonesia, Japan, Samoa and the United States. This is due to its habit of living near and benefitting from humans, which allow it to be easily transported in international grain shipments. Its common name refers to Angoumois, the pre-revolutionary province of France where it was first scientifically described in 1789. The province was transformed into the present-day Charente département the following year, and as it has since been determined, the species is not originally native to western France.

The adults' wingspan is 13–20 mm. Its caterpillars feed on grains of Asian Rice (Oryza sativa), Pearl Millet (Pennisetum glaucum), Sorghum (Sorghum bicolor), wheats (Triticum) and Maize (Zea mays). They bore into the seeds of the host plant and feed inside the seed covering. Consequently, this moth is considered a pest of stored cereals. More unusually, the caterpillars have been recorded to eat other dry plant matter, such as plant specimens stored in herbaria.

Duponchelia Fovealis Moth

Cydia Pomonella Moth

The Cydia Pomonella, codling moth, is a member of the Lepidopteran family Tortricidae. These are agricultural pests, their larva being the common apple worm or maggot. Inhabitant of Europe, the codling moth was introduced to North America, where it has become one of the regular pests of apple orchards. It is found almost worldwide. It also attacks pears, walnuts, and other tree fruits.

This larva is the offensive "worm in the apple" of cartoon and vernacular fame and is not related to the earthworm.

The codling moth is greyish with light grey and copper stripes on its wings, and has an average wingspan of 17 mm. The females lay eggs on fruit or leaves and the black-headed yellow larvae attack the fruit immediately upon hatching. Each larva burrows into the fruit, eats for around three weeks, then leaves the fruit to overwinter and pupate elsewhere. Most nourishment is obtained by feeding on the protein enriched seeds.

The codling moth produces two broods in one year in most regions of the USA — in the Pacific Northwest there is a partial third generation.