Yay, more prophylactic freezer action.
All the dry staples (rice, flour, beans, etc.) from the grocery order earlier are now in frozen quarantine for a few days before they go anywhere near our pantry cupboard. Because I was unfortunately reminded again not long ago that I probably should NOT have slacked off on that, when I found minor evidence of flour moths in my previous bag of cornmeal. 😵
After some careful inspection, it didn't look like any had managed to get much further than that. Everything infestable that was in there got cycled through the freezer to kill off any kind of bugs and/or their eggs anyway, playing it safe. I actually just cleared out the final batch this evening, to make room for the new stuff. Including a fresh bag of the same cornmeal!
The few items left in those four drawers usually dedicated to dry goods are, like, pickled vegetables and some shirataki noodles in vacuum pouches. Not tempting chow for horrible little moth larvae, and it would be obvious if the pouches had lost seal
Now an amazing amount of pantry stuff has been taking up space to one side of our living room for several weeks altogether--and I am leaving that cabinet empty of everything that might host them for a few more days, until those new groceries are ready to leave quarantine. Just to hopefully make sure there's a lower chance of any eggs or anything lingering in there.
Our temporary pantry, y'all. That back of the couch bag just got hastily hoiked there a little while ago.
Thankfully no evidence of any worrying bugs anywhere else in the house so far, with the freezer-cycled food just sitting there in the openwith no good way to keep anything out of it. Can't say I will be sorry to finally get everything back where it belongs!
Anyway, I am indeed aware that this might seem like an overly nutty reaction to finding what looked like evidence of moth webs in a bag of cornmeal. And maybe it really is.
But yeah, I do have actual OCD. Plus I lived with both moths and freaking weevils in my mom's food hoard, which she couldn't just get rid of on any of the several different occasions when bugs did get into it. Hitchhiking in on new items from the store.
She would honest to goodness also go ahead and cook pasta that she knew had weevils lurking in the package, and fish them out of the boiling water with a spoon. 🥴 I think I took significant psychic damage from just several years of those damned moths flapping around the whole house, and their awful maggoty-looking web spinning children dangling on threads. I remember walking straight into one hanging from the living room ceiling fan, of all places. And this shit went on for several years straight.
Those little fuckers will get into things that you wouldn't even imagine them possibly being attracted to. You may think a jar or other firmly closed lidded hard container will keep them out, but if it's not completely airtight they will find a way in.
On the plus side, I did develop extensive experience at identifying signs of weevils and moths in your food stores.
Anyway, I really am extra motivated to avoid dealing with pest bugs in my own pantry, now that I am in charge of my own. Brought home weevils a couple of times back in London, but promptly tossed everything that might be infested and preemptively froze the rest.
So yeah, it might be aggravating, but I think I will indeed go back to making sure everything risky that comes in goes through freezer quarantine before it joins the other food. Needing to systematically go through and do that on all the existing shit has eaten up way more spoons than if I had just done it gradually before a new thing went into the cabinet at all. And luckily we also have more freezer space now, to help make quarantine more practical.
Also, it may be pretty ingrained in me to keep plenty of food on hand. To the point that I do set actual stock limits for myself. But, at least this feels like further evidence that I really do not seem to have developed the same outright hoarding urge--to the point that you literally could not bring yourself to throw a buggy bag of cornmeal or rice in the trash. 😬 I can, and will, toss whatever I need to in order to keep things non-disgusting.
