Indianmeal Moths

Indianmeal moths are considered a “very common household pest,” according to entomologists. They feed on stored food products, which most everyone has in their pantries. People usually don’t realize they have an infestation until they see the adult moths, and by that time it is much too late. Like most moths, Indianmeal moths are attracted to light. And the name derived from the United States where these insects were found to be a pest of meal made of “Indian corn” or maize.

Indianmeal Moth Lifecycle

The adults are red and grey and they have a distinctive wing pattern. Once a female emerges from the cocoon, she can mate. After mating once she can lay up to 400 eggs. These eggs can be laid one by one or in clusters. They are usually deposited on a larval food source, and once the female Indianmeal moth lays her last egg, she will die few days later.

Once the eggs hatch into larva, they have five to seven stages of growth until they are about ½” in length. The color of the larval stages range from off-white with tints of pink, brown, or greenish, depending on the food source. You can tell if the larvae has been somewhere because they leave webbing on the surface on which they were feeding.

Indianmeal moth larva feeds from the outside of a kernel inwards, and sometimes you can find them burrowed in a shell of something. They have been found in and love grain products, seeds, dried fruit, dog food, spices, and are very common in processed cereals.

Indianmeal Moth Treatments

These moths are actually quite ingenious, but a nuisance, as the larva are able to crawl to different parts of the pantry or even “migrat[ing] distant locations” before pupating (changing and growing stages). This means that they can confuse home owners and Pest Management Professionals about where the source of the infestation is located.

Indianmeal moths, both the larvae and the adult, can easily damage stored products. The most common form of damage is when the larvae spin massive amounts of silk on food products because their fecal pellets, cast skins, and egg shells can accumulate on the silk.

As you can tell, because these pests are so pesky they can be hard to first: locate, second: identify, and third: treat. Paffy’s Pest Control has dealt with these buggers before. Our pricing is affordable and based on square footage across the board.

Once the technician comes out to assess the situation and verify if you do have Indianmeal moths, he will use any number of treatment methods interchangeably. These are some common methods: pheromone sticky traps, and sanitation.

Once the source has been found and removed, the technician will apply a safe chemical pesticide in and around the cabinets where they were found. He will also place pheromone traps to catch the adults. This service will eliminate the moth problem, and just in case we have a 3-month warranty attached so if you notice anything after a couple weeks, give us a call.

Sources: NPCA Field Guide to Structural Pests, entnemdept.ufl.edu

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If you have any other questions or have had these pests before, give our office a call at 651-459-4654, we can talk about some preventative pest control options to keep all insects and rodents out of your home!