Indian Meal Moth Control

If you ever had whitish worms crawling up walls and across the ceiling in a kitchen or food storage area, chances were excellent they were indianmeal moth larvae, one of the more common stored product pests. Often an infestation is discovered when the full grown larvae (about 1/2 inch) leave their food source and wander around looking for places to pupate.

Grain moth larvae can be found in any type of grain, nut, fruit or cereal product.

Infested products can include bird seed, peanuts, pecans, dog food, candy, macaroni, breakfast cereal, corn meal, dried beans, etc. It is common to find beetles and weevils in the same infested food as the moth larvae.

Control Eliminate the source. All potential sources of food for the moths should be either discarded, cooked, frozen, or placed inside an air tight container (ziplock bags are not air tight).

Treat all cracks and crevices with the Invader aerosol. This will provide a good residual for any future emerging worms. Repeat this step in 2 weeks.

Set up moth traps. These traps will catch the adult moths before they can lay eggs and reinfest another food product. The traps contain no poison of any kind. They are nothing more than a glue board and a sex pheromone pill placed inside. As soon as the adults emerge from the cocoon they will head straight for the moth trap. Each trap will last about a month.

When new food is brought into the house keep this food in airtight containers or inside the refrigerator for a couple of weeks.

If you have beetles or weevils, do not use the moth traps (they work only on grain moths) but follow all other guidelines.