Monday, September 11, 2006

Indian Meal Moths

Lindsay and I have for several weeks noticed little gnat/fly/mothy creatures around the apartment, particularly in our pantry. At first it was an annoyance, but as we started taking notice, it became especially annoying for 2 people who are relatively (ok, ok very) clean and tidy. Bugs in our apartment?? Seriously, what kind of crap is that?? An exterminator came for the whole building, and we thought it would be fine. Nope, still there. So we were informed they live in grains and oats and stuff and we should get rid of those types of food, as they can come in from food purchased outside, and then lay eggs places. So we got rid of those things. But they're still there. This we discovered when Linds wanted to eat oatmeal this morning and discovered tiny little maggot-like larvae in said oatmeal container. Mmmm what a great way to start a Monday. So, we are informed by our building owner that they are in fact Indian Meal Moths and in order to get rid of them we have to dispose of all food in which they could possibly lay their eggs. First of all, why/how did he know that they were indian meal moths? And really, who has them?? Fruit flies, cockroaches, mice... all "normal" apartment critters... but INDIAN MEAL MOTHS??? Seriously. Tonight begins the purging of all possible sites of IMM breeding. Updates on the status of the IMM situation at a later date.

1 comment:

Lindsay said...

Part 2 of the Indian Meal Moth Saga:

I felt like I needed an afternoon snack, so I opened up my food drawer at my desk to see the available options. In there, I had a bag of mixed nuts. I thought to myself, "What a healthy snack!" I ate a few. Then, I reached my had in the bag again and was a bit surprised to find some lint on my hand. I figured it had been on my hand before. So I threw out the few nuts in my hands and reached it the bag for more. This time, something that looked like a spider web was hanging down off of the nut. Attached to the end of it was one of the Indian Meal Moth larvae!!!!!!!!!!! It was just like the ones I found in my oatmeal. Ewwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwwww! And I had already eaten a few nuts!!!!!!!!!! Barf. I immediately spit out what was in my mouth, threw the bag away and rinsed my mouth out with water in the kitchen. DISGUSTING!!!