Serious Eats - seriouseats.com

Sorry @CFG, it's a drag when that happens. You know, sometimes it's not actually your cupboard, it's how you got the food. For about 6 months, every package of DeCecco pasta I bought had crawlies in them. I tried different markets, it made no difference. I stopped buying it for a couple of years. Don't seem to have that problem with it now. Once I found an entire ecosystem living in an unopened plastic bag of bran. It was in the back of the cupboard and when I pulled it out, it was all puffed up and filled with much wildlife, webs and everything.

I keep food that is naturally attractive to bugs in the fridge or freezer. Everything else in in tightly sealed jars or ziplock bags. It's not just to keep bugs out, but to keep bugs in that may have come with the product. Buying loose grains from the health food store is always a toss-up.

I'd throw out everything in your cupboard that isn't in a can, or at the very least, anything that's ever been opened, wash the cans well, and scrub down the cupboard with a super-hot vinegar/water mix.

Regarding the bugs themselves, there is a product called Safer Brand Pantry Nest Trap that works pretty well, as long scrub everything down first. If you just toss them in without cleaning everything up first, it won't do much good.

Hope this helps.

I've had that happen, usually from bringing home some sort of infested package. swampy's idea of putting everything in the fridge when you first bring it home is great.

In our house we usually keep all grains or starches in containers. Unopened packages go in a big tub, usually divided by type (beans in one, grains in another, pastas in another). Those are sealed. Once the package is opened, the label is clipped and goes into a tall clear plastic container with a good sealing lid. You can do this less expensively by just saving jars like tomato sauce or just buy some mason jars.

There are little traps you can buy that will catch the mature moths, they contain a glue surface and a pheremone to attract them. However, if you're bringing home the infested goodies, this won't do much good.

Avoid stores where you see little moths flying around and examine packages carefully before taking home.

@CanadianFoodieGirl - I totally sympathize. We also live in Toronto and have suffered both ant (sugar craving) and moth (starch craving) invasions.

For the moths, the first time we tried throwing away the goods and scrubbing down the cabinet. It wasn't enough, the moths came back the next year. That time we did what several above have suggested - first we used up or threw out everything in the cupboard not in a can. Then, we scrubbed and put all replacement items in the refrigerator for storage. And then we kept all starchy items out of the cupboard for a year.

For the ants, who were attracted to anything with refined sugar or alcohol, we did the same thing: toss, clean, refrigerate. We also used diatomaceous earth at ingress points; this is a chemical free way to get rid of some pests.

To be honest, because the refrigerator has only so much room, this was a great way to get out of the habit of eating highly processed foods such as cereals, cookies, mac & cheese, white sugar and flour, etc. This was a fringe benefit for both our waistlines and our pocket books!

I washed out the cupboard, threw out everything that looked infested, then put all of the little bags into plastic tubs that I buy salad in. The bugs were contained to one cupboard but I did the same with a second cupboard.

There's no room in my freezer to put any of this but I might try the fridge idea.

I'm keeping an eye out for them. I saw one crawl up the wall hours after the cleaning.

If you're cleaning for Pesach, that's a powerful motive for debugging. At least you kill two birds with one stone.

After vacuuming out the bugs, put a thin line of boric acid in the crevice where the cabinet meets the wall. Boric acid is safe for you and your pets. For more extreme needs (as my dad had when they moved into an infested home), if your home has a crawl space, open the access door, close the vents, and get your leaf blower. Duct tape a canister of boric acid to the air intake of the blower, aim under the house, and turn it on. When white clouds come from around the vent doors, you're done. I'm serious, he did this. They have not had a crawling insect in 5 years.

Ugh. We've had similar problems with pantry moths from time to time. They eat through cardboard and thin plastic -- the only way I know to keep them in their place is to put everything they might possibly be attracted to (and this includes powdered sugar, as I discovered much to my chagrin, and chocolate chips) into glass jars.

We lived on a golf course, and no matter how I cleaned, bugs were everywhere because of all the grass, trees, open space, etc.

My husband lined all the cupboard joints (where the cupboard wall meets the shelf at the back and on both sides) with clear heavy duty 3M shipping tape. It worked great because any bugs that came in could not nest, and any that were already in couldn't get to the shelf.

PS - I LOVE Trader Joe's, but this was ucky: We received a big bar of their chocolate as a gift. When I went to eat it, there were small white holes dotting the surface. I looked closer, and white worms were crawling out of all the holes. It was the sickest thing I've seen in a long time (and I've seen some sick things!).

Two days later, and no sight of any more bugs.
(They were small and brown, in case anyone wanted to know.)

Of course, now that I've said this I'll probably find some when I get home.