Have you ever noticed flour bugs in your rice, cereal or pasta? Let’s talk about what they are exactly, how they got there, whether or not it’s safe to eat the food and what you can do to keep them from coming back!
Buying items in bulk is one of the best grocery saving tips that continues to work month after month, but I do wonder if the 50 pounds of flour sitting in my closet (in it’s original thick paper bag) is the best way to store it.
Growing up, my mom had mentioned something about flour bugs, but I’ve never seen them before. Or maybe I’ve just never noticed them before?
I admit – seeing flour bugs or even bugs in your whole grains, rice and pasta can be pretty gross – but all is not lost and in fact, it’s pretty common!
Why am I finding flour bugs?
This is a pretty loaded question, and one that often comes with more questions too. The best way I can think of addressing it all is to lay it all out, question-and-answer style.
Does flour go bad?
The short answer: Yes.
The long answer: The more processed the flour is, the longer it takes to go bad.
Flour is made from a whole grain, with the most common whole grain being wheat. Once the grain is no longer whole, the oils from the outer portion of the grain can go rancid (or sour, stale, etc.).
Freshly milled flour will go rancid much more quickly than store-bought all-purpose flour will. That’s because freshly milled flour will contain both the germ and the bran (natural oils are found in both of these places). All-purpose flour though, only contains the endosperm and very little oils.
This is why home bakers who grind their own wheat will make flour just before they use them in recipes.
Related: How to make flour without a grain mill
Where should we store flour?
Going back to the level of processing, all-purpose and other non-whole grain flours can be stored in a cool, dry place without any issues for about one year.
Whole grain flours should be kept in a refrigerator for the short term, about 2-5 days. If you need to store whole grain flour for longer than a handful of days, the freezer is the best place.
How should we store flour?
If the flour will be used fairly quickly, it can be left open or in a container with a lid.
Think about local bakeries and delis – they’ll often have a bucket of flour open on the counter or a lid may be slightly ajar. They will use a good bit of flour in a single day, so sealing it up tight isn’t an issue.
If the flour will be used within a month or two, it should be kept in a sealed container.
One to two months is considered “quick” in terms of flour usage, so you can keep your flour in a container that is NOT sealed (i.e. the same thick paper bag, rolled down) but the chances of the flour going rancid increase.
If the flour will not be completely consumed within two months, it should be stored in a sealed container.
What type of storage container is best for flour?
Depending on the quantity of flour on hand, there are food-grade buckets are available in a wide variety of sizes.
1 gallon buckets with lids would be best for daily use or the pantry. They’re light enough to move from counter to pantry and back, but big enough so that you’re not constantly refilling the flour every time you make bread.
3.5 gallon buckets with lids are best for keeping on the floor of the pantry or in a nearby closet. This is where you’d keep the majority of the flour, refilling the 1 gallon bucket with the flour from the 3.5 gallon bucket. These will be too heavy to easily use in daily baking, but not so heavy that you couldn’t slide it on the floor or pick it up if you absolutely had to.
5 gallon buckets with lids are best for long-term storage in a basement or garage or excess pantry. This size will be too big for most people, but is ideal for those who buy whole grains in bulk. You’d keep your whole grains in this bucket and bring the smaller 3.5 gallon bucket to this one when it’s empty for a refill. Then you’d grind your flour and fill up the small 1 gallon bucket.
Why are there flour bugs in grains?
If you notice little brown bugs in your flour, cereal, grain or rice, those are called weevils. Weevils look like little grains of rice, but they’re brown and they move. On their own.
Ever notice your flour tangled in something that looks like a cobweb? That means your flour is infested too.
Have no fear – flour bugs don’t just suddenly appear in your flour one day because you forgot to mop some mysterious sticky substance that one of your children accidentally spilled in your pantry. If you see flour bugs, they were already there when you bought it.
The female weevil lays eggs in the wheat kernel and it can sometimes survive the milling process. The eggs will hatch if they’re in warm or humid conditions, or have reached their maturity. The flour bugs eat the grain and then seek to mate… while eating more grain.
Why are there flour bugs in my boxed cereal?
Weevils aren’t particular about what they eat. If you find them in any other seemingly sealed spot, they’ve weaseled their way out of their original infestation spot and meandered to your rice, or cereal, or coffee.
Essentially, this means what you’ve already eaten was infested too.
Weevils are also not particular about containers. Thin cardboard boxes that cereal comes in, thin paper bags that flour comes in and even the plastic bags inside cereal and cracker boxes are no match for weevils.
The best containers to keep your dry goods in while keeping weevils out are these food-grade containers with lids that seal:
What can I do to prevent eating beetles?
1. Clean the Area.
First, get rid of the infested item.
Remove everything from the area, vacuum out any cracks and sanitize the shelves with white vinegar. If you’re sensitive to the smell of vinegar, make citrus-infused vinegar instead.
Check areas regularly for re-infestation as it may take awhile to completely rid of all flour bugs and larvae, and clean your storage area regularly.
2. Store dry goods properly.
Freeze newly purchased grains and flour for at least three days to kill any eggs. Some sources recommend freezing for up to one week. (Note that freezing will kill the eggs, but not remove them.)
As a general guideline, don’t buy more grain than you will use within four months. Store grains in a tightly sealed container, not a bag. Weevils are HUNGRY little devils and can eat through bags. (See my storage recommendations above).
3. Prevent Future Infestation
Adding whole bay leaves and garlic cloves to the area seems to deter flour bugs from setting up shop in your pantry. Garlic may leave a trace flavor in your baked goods, so if you don’t want that, go for the bay leaves instead.
Other Ideas for Preventing Flour Bugs
I haven’t tested all of these ideas myself, but if bay leaves and/or tea tree oil haven’t worked for you, readers also suggest:
- Food grade Diatomaceous Earth
- Lock & Lock Food Storage Bins
- Applying tea tree oil to a few cotton balls and place them throughout the pantry
- Dried Chilis
Will eating beetles harm me?
Other than give you the heebie jeebies, they’re harmless. In fact, the heat from baking kills the eggs and any beetles that may have made their way into your batter. So while the odds of us eating weevils – or have eaten weevils in the past – are high, the mortality rate is low.
Flour Bugs are very common. But there are ways to prevent them from showing up.
- Store your flour in food grade buckets with sealed lids – use 1-gallon, 3.5-gallon, or 5-gallon depending on where you are storing and how often you access your flour. Same goes for grain. (These storage bins would work well for everyday use.)
- Make sure to keep your pantry or storage area clean. Add bay leaves and garlic, cotton balls soaked in tea tree oil, or sprinkle the area with diatomaceous earth.
- Don’t sweat too much if you find evidence of the bugs. They won’t harm you! It’s just not too fun to eat bugs…
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Adele
Thank you for this little article. It answers all the questions I had having recently found tiny bugs the size of comma’s in my flour. I have found no adult sized bugs, so I suspect that per your article there have been eggs in the flour and they’ve hatched recently since the weather has become milder. I usually store my flour with the bag rolled down, but I’ll be purchasing some glass containers first chance I get. I do tend to use some flour up quicker than others, but having cleared out my flour cupboard I’ve found some bags with a best before end date over a year old! I’ve just thrown out all of the infested flour, I’m pretty sure that I’ve eaten some tiny baby bugs over the last week (sorry mummy bug!) and I must admit I’m not too freaked out by it, I’ve lived to tell the tale, BUT from now on no more throwing the flour into the bread machine with wild abandon, more care will be taken.
Sandra H.
Beetles will be the death of me yet. Started with a package of crackers my brother brought over to snack on during Hurricane Ike and he left them in my home then in a couple of weeks bam. Have been battling them ever since. These suckers can live up to 6 months without eating anything. Just when I think I’ve got a hold on it I find them somewhere else in the house. Right now the bathrooms and guess what no food is in there so don’t know why they are there to begin with. I beginning to think I need to freeze my whole house to get rid of these pesty little creatures.
JoAnn
I got pantry moths from dog bones, for my Chihuahuas. When I opened a new box of Iams, they flew out. What a pain they are. They like the ceiling popcorn which they attach to and lay eggs on.
I have also found them inside my cabinets. So, look thoroughly. They like to settle in.
Erin
I have found that most of my weevil infestations originated in dog treats or critter food. I always freeze dog treats for a few days now before putting them in the pantry and the dog food stays stored in containter in the garage. I’m getting nauseous just writing about them. I’ve had the wonderful cereal experience to with the floaters when you sit down to eat breakfast. Now, cereals that are super grainy that have flax in them totally play mind games with me. Is it a bug or a grain? I am definitely investing in bay leaves. I never want to deal with weevils again.
Tiffany
LOL – thank you for sharing your experience Erin! Weevils in cereal… now I’m totally creeped out too! 🙂
Cherie
Pet treats! Guess, I need to put them in my freezer with the birdseed. I have to stop reading as I am getting nauseated from the discussion.
Jalon
We just discovered a couple black bugs in our pantry, and I hate bugs! I took everything out and put it on my counter in order to clean, vacuum, spray, wipe, vacuum…yuck! I left everything out overnight to make sure there weren’t any new ones on the shelves by morning. I found these bugs HATE light! We immediately found the source because they were all gathered in the Italian breadcrumbs. I checked this the night before and didn’t see any so I was really surprised. There weren’t any on the counter because my kitchen is so bright, they went back to their origin. Threw the container away…took trash out…vacuumed shelves, sprayed, wiped, vacuumed, even vacuumed the edges of unopened boxes of food, and finally cleared my counters of all pantry items. I also threw away any opened package, even if it was just recently opened. I used my phone’s bright flashlight to make sure there are no more crawling and nothing. No movement! Use light guys to find your source quickly!
Bona
I have heard that sprinkling borax around on your shelves especially in any cracks/crevices will deter these bugs. Has anyone else hear of doing that? Does it work?
I just saw them in my cereal this morning…Mine looked like dark brown rice kernels and were floating on the top of the milk. I didn’t know if they were part of my Great Grains or not so I spooned out all 5 and put them on a napkin. They play dead !! After a couple minutes, they started crawling around on the napkin !!! UGH! Bowl of cereal went down the toilet along with the napkin, and now am cleaning out the pantry & pitching the dry goods. Then on to my computer to figure out what they were, where they come from, and how to get rid of them.
I do have borax in my laundry room, so I’ll use the soap/water, vinegar rinse, borax and bay leaves. In the future there won’t be anything boxed on those shelves – might just have to purchase a second freezer.
Thank you for any replies plus all the information you’ve posted on this site.
Tiffany
Hi Bona! Can I first just say the comment of “they play dead” had me literally laughing out loud? That was so awesome, yet so gross at the same time! Thanks for sharing!
As to the borax, I have not heard anything about it in relation to weevils, but I’m sure if a reader has they’ll let us know. Those old home remedies are bound to come out!
Veronica Goldman
My weevils share the play possum talent. I’m thinking of unleashing a couple of the geckos on them. Not the worst idea. BTW, strong vinegar is best. don’t dilute it. they swim, too.
David Vosper
Borax contains boric acid. A lady from India posted here and said that boric acid powder was used in india to protect their 50-lb bags of rice. 200 grams of BA for 50-lb of rice.
Diana
food grade diatomaceous earth!
Diana
Try Diatomaceous earth- food grade!! Not swimming pool kind that will harm you or your pets ,make sure its food grade This stuff is natural ,kills all sorts of bugs ,and you can sprinkle in your food if you need to also good for your stomach ,research this stuff even saved us from bed bugs ,actually was the only thing that worked!!
Colleen
Thank-you for an informative post (and comments!). I just found a small white wormy looking thing on the top of a bag of flour that I was about to open, and I have now put the whole thing in the freezer. I did look through all the flour and couldn’t find anything else, so hopefully this will be enough. I will sift it before use, too. I’d never heard of this, but I bought a bunch of flour on discount at a store that stopped selling it. Now I’m thinking that their stock wasn’t turning over enough. Oops; I won’t do that again! But thanks to your post, I feel much more informed and I will deal with this as best I can. [I had the flour bags inside of a very tightly sealed container in a room with no other food, so fingers crossed they couldn’t have spread to the kitchen yet.] However, I’ll keep my eyes wide open this month!
Amanda
There is a reason our Grandmothers and Great Grandmothers always sifted their flour, and it was not just to give their baked goods a light fluffy texture 😉
Tiffany
LOL 🙂
Beth
Can you point me to a good resource for how long freshly milled flour lasts? I keep my whole wheat in a glass container on the counter and mill it about once a week. Maybe I need to start putting it in the freezer. 🙁
Tiffany
Hi Beth! I don’t have my book at my side, my I trust this post. It says at room temperature, 2-3 days. In the fridge for 2 weeks, in the freezer for one month. If you’re milling once a week, the fridge would be best. The whole grain itself is good on the counter for a very long time. 🙂
Kathy
I have been having a big problem with pantry moths! I thought I had them licked once, but they are back with a vengeance. I have my sticky traps out and getting fuller by the minuet.
Now I have a question on all this….I thought that the pantry moth was another phase of the weevil. Is it not? Are they two different things? I have not seen many weevils, but tons of those stupid moths.
Tiffany
That’s a good question Kathy. I’ll see if I can dig up something for you, but from past readings, moths were not related to the weevil. 🙁
Erin
I left an old box of hamster food in my closet. I went to go clean my closet and found what I believe to be this bug. I got rid of the food. What else should I do to kill or get rid of them because it happened in a closet and not a food pantry and that was the only food in there. I have found some dead ones but that is it.
Tiffany
Hi Erin,
If it’s truly weevils, you’ll have to thoroughly clean the area with soap and water. The bugs can go beyond the pantry – anywhere there’s food for them is where they’ll go.
Erin
I bagged everything up. And cleaned out that part of my closet I am going to work on the other half and I swept up all the dead ones I found. I have not seen anything since but I am checking everyday. I flush the dead ones down the toilet. Hopefully within the next week I will have all of this taken care of. On the day that I found them I cleaned and I found only a couple outside of the hamster food that were alive but barley everything else has been dead.
Kinzie
I haven’t found the weevils, but I have had a crazy time getting rid of pantry moths. I ended up buying some sticky traps at Home Depot and between the two traps must have caught 50 or more moths. It was crazy. I bet there are still more in there, too. ugh.
Tiffany
Whoa – that IS crazy! Gotta look on the bright side though, you found a way to get rid of them that works! 🙂
Karina
We live in an apartment and I have a hunch that maybe our weevils are coming from somebody else. We’ve had them about a year ago. I’ve cleaned everything very thoroughly, threw out pretty much everything in our pantry and laid bay leaves on the shelves. It was fine for a while, but this summer they came again. I followed my usual drill, except I was even more thorough this time. It’s been a couple weeks and we are still not keeping anything in our pantry shelves. I even went as far as wiping the shelves with a bleach solution. The weevils are still there. I only see a couple a day or so. It’s nothing like when I found a container with oatmeal, heavily infested, nevertheless they are still hanging out in our kitchen and I’m worried to put everything back on the shelves. I’m considering using a repelling spray, as one of the people who commented above suggested, but I don’t know how really helpful it’s going to be. My bay leaves did not seem to be that useful.
Tiffany
What a bummer Karina! It makes sense to have weevils travel from one area of the kitchen to another, so I guess it wouldn’t be out of the question for them to travel just a bit farther to eat. Perhaps a repellent spray along with talking to your neighbor would be helpful? At least you could either rule them in or out as the culprits.
Marilyn
Sorry, having a little trouble with posting my entire comment. As I was saying, I couldn’t understand where they came from. After reading your post, I am more informed, and will get right on it! Beginning with cleaning out the cabinet, and getting rubber sealed glass jars. One question; Which basil leaves, fresh or dried?
Tiffany
Hi Marilyn! I’m sorry to hear you have weevils, but glad you found Crumbs!
Bay leaves are the recommendation, not basil, and they should be dried. Best of luck clearing out those little buggers!
Marilyn
I found this post when I was looking up bugs in grains, after I had my last straw yesterday! I was cleaning the brown rice I was going to make for dinner, when I found the little black bugs in the rice. Well, upon closer inspection I found the tiny opaque larva wriggling around in the rice as well. That was it, I’d had it! I dumped the entire bag of rice. Glad I found this site. You made me laugh with “Weevil-Infested bread anyone? Yummy!” I’m glad you did cause I was so grossed out!!! I’ve been seeing these stupid little bugs in my rice, and pasta boxes every now and then. The first time, I saw them floating in the boiling water, and like that other lady said, I scooped them up, threw them away and we ate the rice after it was cooked; I didn’t tell the family
Marilyn
I found this post when I was looking up bugs in grains, after I had my last straw yesterday! I was cleaning the brown rice I was going to make for dinner, when I found the little black bugs in the rice. Well, upon closer inspection I found the tiny opaque larva wriggling around in the rice as well. That was it, I’d had it! I dumped the entire bag of rice. Glad I found this site. You made me laugh with “Weevil-Infested bread anyone? Yummy!” I’m glad you did cause I was so grossed out!!! I’ve been seeing these stupid little bugs in my rice, and pasta boxes every now and then. The first time, I saw them floating in the boiling water, and like that other lady said, I scooped them up, threw them away and we ate the rice after it was cooked; I didn’t tell the family
Marilyn
I found this post when I was looking up bugs in grains, after I had my last straw yesterday! I was cleaning the brown rice I was going to make for dinner, when I found the little black bugs in the rice. Well, upon closer inspection I found the tiny opaque larva wriggling around in the rice as well. That was it, I’d had it! I dumped the entire bag of rice. Glad I found this site. You made me laugh with “Weevil-Infested bread anyone? Yummy!” I’m glad you did cause I was so grossed out!!! I’ve been seeing these stupid little bugs in my rice, and pasta boxes every now and then. The first time, I saw them floating in the boiling water, and like that other lady said, I scooped them up, threw them away and we ate the rice after it was cooked; I didn’t tell the family
Susan
Gosh, glad I found this site. I too remember my mom talking about bugs in the flour. This morning I discovered them in oatmeal that I had transferred to a glass canister. From there I found them in the wheat flour, cornmeal, Bisquick and Crusteze. The cereal was clean…for now. This was all in my pantry. I cleaned everything out really good and threw all away, but man they were gross! I will wipe down with vinegar tomorrow. Used soap as I did not know that vinegar is preferred. I put my sugar (still in the bag) in the freezer. Is that ok? Oh, and setting out the bay leaves right now!
Lisa
Im actually battling the brown/black flour beetles right now! Its been many weeks since I got some baking mix and they were in that. I didnt realize it so it sat in my pantry for a few weeks and suddenly i began to see the small beetles and occasionally the larvae in the kitchen area. I had no clue what they were and no idea what to do other than call pest control (live in an apartment). That didnt help. they would come, go, and come back again… eventually migraiting to the laundry area and occasionally elsewhere in the food hunt. The weird thing is just about everything we have is in glass or plastic jars, or in bags. Nothing is just out. Once I opened the mix and saw a dead moth fall out of the box and some larvea I knew I had a major issue. I tossed all my grains and restocked everything in jars. My food is clear yet I still see the freaking bugs every day or so in my pantry. I will have to try to bay leaves, I have no idea what else to do. Its driving me nuts even though I know our food is clean from being in jars and I know they dont hurt you. Still its GROSS
Tiffany
Lisa,
I think the bay leaves will help. Remember that every time you see a bug, there’s a chance that it’s left eggs somewhere you can’t see… which will only perpetuate the problem. I know it’s a pain, but perhaps cleaning out every single cupboard and pantry and wiping down all the shelves will help. Restock with bay leaves inside and out of the containers. Hang in there!! ~Tiffany