Terrible day!!! do not read if about to eat

[sunnyrae]

OHHHH horendous day today let me explain. the last couple of days my kitchen worktop have had a few yeast/sand looking crumbs on them so I have been cleaning it up thinking OH keeps knocking over the packet of yeast in the cupboard.... only to find he must have done it again, so I threw the packet out because it was so annoying, only to find on closer inspection last night that these tiny grains of sand were moving :s so I totally freaked out, googled it and it would seem they are flour mites. I cant find the specific spot they are coming from but I think it might be because it's moist around where my kettle is as that's where it's worse. So I've had a crazy day of feeling utterly disgusting bleaching all my kitchen every cupboard work surface etc throwing all food out. Gone out to the shop got bk in and there is still a few on my work top grrrr I dont know what to do I'm not a dirty person, I cant find the source of them it's horrible!!!!!

Has anyone had anything like this before?

I've wacked on my dehumidifer and got it on max it's been on all night.

What else can I do????

 

[danadee23]

My understanding is that these creatures arrive in the early stages of flour/grain production - on the actual crops themselves. The milling process gets rid of most of them but yes, I think it is the case that they can be actually present in small quantities within the finished packaged product.

On the plus side, generally they are completely harmless if eaten - although heavily infested foodstuffs may provide health risks. At this stage however, the product would have acquired a sickly "off" smell and it's low quality would be very noticeable.

Two folk tips I've heard of are: freeze any new bags of flour/grain as soon as you get it which apparently kills them. Not sure about this and not sure how something like flour would survive the freezing/thawing process.

Also, it is believed that these mites hate bay leaves - so no harm in throwing a few around in the cupboards.

Also, remember, during an year the average person unwittingly consumes a certain amount of insects anyway!

Regarding the damp/humid conditions required consider things like how well extractors are working, the positioning of the kettle to the cupboard in question etc...




ve heard that the best natural way to get rid of them (as you don't want to be using insecticides in your food cupboards) is to starve them. Apparently they are quite choosy and will only really go for flour/grain.

Completely empty the cupboard in question and wash out, dump infected food stuffs then leave for about a week before reusing the same cupboard. There will always be some that you've missed or can't be seen etc - a week without food should kill them off.

The only way to avoid having any of your foodstuffs contaminated with these bugs is to either put the food in airtight containers or use those clips; you can buy very effective and inexpensive clips from Heatons and Tesco, the clips are also useful for closing open bags of frozen food (frozen peas in particular!) before freezing.



Also, they tend to be attracted to flour/grains that are damp - so this may be a problem you should address.

 

[sunnyrae]

Thank you so much for taking the time out to write that reply i really appreciate it!!! Will try the bay leaves in the back of the cupboards hopefully will get rid of them!!

 

[danadee23]

no problems ive heard alot of these little pests but have yet to encounter them myself. I always check the bag of flour before using hehe

 

[peggypig]

Must have been awful for you I would have been freaked out too!!!! Hope you get sorted

 

[jen3]

I've had them before. I now always keep my flour in the freezer. It doesnt freeze the flour just keeps it cold enough to stop the mites from progressing. I've heard that most flour has them in nowadays and they get bigger if its not used quickly

 

[Lemon Squash]

Several years ago I got a half used pack of stuffing out of the cupboard, poured it into a bowl and went to add the boiling water to it when I noticed that it was moving! On closer inspection it was full of these little bugs which turned out to be flour mites (I think). Like you OP I then spent a day cleaning and throwing out all flour cereal etc. After that I am always careful to seal dry goods in plastic bags with clips.

I hadn't heard about the freezing tip so thanks for that.