Weevil Prevention and Food Storage

Have you ever gotten weevils in your grains - such as rice and beans or baking goods such as sugar, flour, pancake mix, cake mixes, Bisquick, etc.? I used to run into that problem at times. I'd open a bag of flour, fill the canister and put the rest of the bag (rolled up) back in the cabinet and when I went to open it again, there'd be these little bugs in it. I've even had a few times that I found them in foods straight from the grocery store.

Weevils are tiny bugs that get into your grains and baking goods. They can even get into cereals. I'm not sure where they come from or if they are more popular in certain regions. I've lived in Texas, Missouri and Michigan and have seen them in all three states at one time or another. It may come from sitting in a warehouse too long or maybe from sitting on a store shelf too long. You might also want to watch for things that look like little spiderwebs...another kind of bug makes those.

Now I have learned that if I put the grains and baking goods (even when they are unopened right from the store) into the freezer I have no problem. It doesn't seem to bother the flour or other baking items or change the texture when you use them and so far I haven't had any weevils. I have a big deep freezer so space isn't an issue but it does help when baking items or grains and such go on sale. I actually put any baking item or grain that I'm not using right away into the freezer until I'm ready to use it. Since it is just Hubby and I we don't go through this stuff a lot so this is a great way to store it and keep it fresh. It's also a good way to store cake, cookie and muffin mixes until your ready to use them.

My Mom had the same problem occasionally but since I've told her about this and she's started doing it...the problem is gone.

If you should find these little things in your foods, you should put the whole bag into a ziplock bag and get it out of the house. You should also check the cabinet where the infested bag was because these things will crawl around looking for more places to get into.

LIVE IN PEACE