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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Thank you. I just went to get rice and saw the little critters when they floated to the top of the water while cooking. I did not see them in my rice cannister until I looked a little closer. It’ s creepy and they were in the grits, and cream of wheat too. I just threw all the shelf items away except for boxes of cake mix. I have tea tree oil, so will try that now that I’ve cleaned out my shelf. Thanks for the tips. I hope it works so I don’t see them again.
Hi Marie!
Good luck! Hope all goes well!
If you see the bugs in rice, just get a strainer with large enough mesh to hold in the rice but let the bugs fall into the sink. Do this in small batches and keep tossing and swirling the rice with your hands until no more bugs are visible in the sink. (You will have to periodically rinse the sink with cold water to send the bugs down the drain.) You can then transfer it to a freezer bag and keep it in the freezer if you like.
Geranium essential oil is very good for repelling bugs in your kitchen cupboards. First, clean your shelves well and let dry. Then take a Q-tip and saturate the tip with the essential oil and run it around all the areas where the shelves meet the cabinet. Do this twice a year (spring and autumn).
Hello Janna!
Thank you for all of those helpful tips! They are great ideas. Thank you for posting. 🙂
I opened a previously opened but sealed again plastic bag of rice and found some of these little critters among the rice. I was already committed to cooking rice as it was part of a meal that I was preparing for myself and it wasn’t practical to go out and get some fresh rice so I tried dumping the rice that I planned to cook into a large bowl of water which I had to do anyway to wash the rice dust off it. The little bugs floated to the surface and I skimmed them off and used the rice.
I dumped the infested bag out and the next day I checked the goods in my cupboards and found them in some pasta and pancake mix. I dumped everything that was infested and cleaned the cupboards and plan to get tight sealable containers for storing the things that they like in.
Can this come in salt too? And air tight containers?
Hi Lakshmi, The female weevil lays eggs in the wheat kernel and it can sometimes survive the milling process. So it is in products before they are made airtight. Since they lay eggs on the wheat kernel, this isn’t the same kind of bug you might find in salt.
I just discovered the grain weevils.i threw out pasta cereals taco shells etc. Cleaned the cupboard and sprayed with insect surface spray. Evidently these insects like gluton.i do have a bread maker. I willl put flour in freezer for four days and make my oown pasta
That’s a great solution Annette!
Hi there, I’ve read a lot of your comments and I would like to share my thoughts. I found the little black bugs in my 10kg bags of spelt flour and, instead of throwing it all out, I bought myself a fine flour sieve and I then sieve all the flour to remove all of the bugs and found that there was nothing actually wrong with the flour and I just use it as normal. Just a little tip if you want to try it.
Yes, this will work however a sieve will not get rid of the eggs or bug waste.
Yeah was just thinking about that. With grains of rice it’s easy and the best method to sieve out those irritating bugs.
In the 1920’s & 30’s my grandfather was a baker for Mrs Baird’s bread in Texas. He always had us use a (clean) huge old rusty nail in our flour/grain buckets. I prefer that to Bay leaves. I’m a 67 year old who bakes a lot…except when hubby is on keto, so there are periods when I go weeks w/o baking. THE ONLY time I ever had weevils was in a bag of flour given to me by a non-baker when she moved (and didn’t want to throw out/waste a purchase she never used).
Thank you for sharing the tip. I am going to try this one. I have flour bugs in my air tight containers and was looking some ideas.
THX FRANZ. I DID TOO ! But, I wasn’t sure if i was cheap or desperate, lol.
Add about 6 marking ink nut in about 5 kg bag of flour or grain or rice. Close it tightly. No weevils will come into it. Remove all marking ink nuts before you use the product. See that the marking ink nuts do not fall in hands of children. You can use these nuts repeatedly for 2 years. Never consume them. These are large size nuts snd you can easily see them in your flour or rice or grains. These nuts have medicinal value in Ayurveda.
I tracked down a 2-pound bag of rice that was full of hard, black insects. They had pierced the thick plastic bag with pin-hole sized openings thru which the bugs were escaping and appearing all over my kitchen.
When this infestation began all I saw were tiny, hard, black bugs that I immediately assumed were fleas. But I could not figure out why they were not biting me. Fleas leave visible feces from the blood that they eat. There was none of that. And I do not have any pets that might harbor fleas.
So this article says that they are weevils, not fleas. Do they both look the same?
They can look similar but they are different overall.
Fleas jump in the blink of an eye. And they’re fast.
This is not really a comet it’s more of a question. I remember seeing my mother and I believe she still doesn’t to this day, she would strain the flour to catch all the weevils and then reuse of flour. Is that a good thing to do.
Al, weevils are not poisonous so it is technically safe but straining does not get rid of eggs.
People are reporting their efficacy but have just read a science page that there is no evidence that vinegar, bay leaves, or any of the other old wive’s tales prevent bugs. Has anyone used these things and still got bugs?
KT, I had purchased pasta/flour type storage containers from Amazon. (Airtight) They were to be used explicitly for my pasta’s because I was tired of opening up boxes of pasta only to find weevils. (I used to wrap them in plastic wrap before storing them in another container with lid-Didn’t work) After reading many anecdotal comments on how to keep weevils out, I opted for the bay leaf method. IT WORKS GREAT in my flour, however weevils showed up in my pasta container about a month after I had cleaned it out and added two new boxes of pasta. I have 6 containers on my kitchen Island but they only showed up in that one container. So… the bay leaves DO work but if the pasta already has eggs from the time of purchase and you don’t cook it right away or at least before the eggs hatch, I’m thinking you’re going to end up with weevils. Just gross and disgusting and costly. We eat a lot of pasta, so if I’m storing three to four boxes in a container that is contaminated, that’s about $6-10 wasted.
Thanks for sharing your experience Vicki!
Omg. I’ve just read an article that says to use garlic or bay leaf. So I’ve just done that because I’m limited with space and have to put my rice grains in air tight containers in different cupboards. The ones in airtight containers have tiny bugs in it but the ones in the larger plastic storage box with holes on the lid has no bugs in it. So am thinking it’s the temperature and the air not circulating must have increased the chances of the bugs inside the container with air tight lid.
I went to cook oatmeal on the stove this morning and when I poured the water on top, a bunch of bugs came crawling out – ewwww! I threw out the whole container. I’m just wondering if anything else in my cupboard could have gotten the bugs. In there I also had a bag of flour rolled down (on different shelf), some coconut flour in a plastic bag, but not a ziplock and a cardboard canister of panic breadcrumbs, pancake mix in the box, etc etc etc. I’m just freaking out that everything has bugs now. I moved the flour, panko and coconut to the fridge. What should I do? There’s also other things in there like box mixes of rice that aren’t opened yet.
What a read! Thanks for all the wonderful information! I have been being bugged by these little buggers for a few months now and have been trying to get the goods on them.
It is incredible how prolific these creatures are. I kind of knew they were some sort of weevil or flour bug, but no matter what you call them, they are very annoying and intelligent pests.
I did read an article today about using a dusting of Borax in cupboards and other storage areas. I also learned about using full-strength white vinegar to wash down storage areas.
Intelligent pests – they do play possum; they’re like zombies and keep coming back to life! It took me adding bleach to the vinegar and boiling water and when I scraped one out of the water; it was really, really dead!
I have always put my flour, sugar, and other dry ingredients through a fine-mesh strainer; since living in Florida, where flour bugs/weevils were the norm.
You should NEVER combine bleach with vinegar – it causes a toxic reaction that will choke you. I’m very surprise you didn’t notice the reaction – I did this once and could not stop chocking – I was advised by an 800# poison control number to go outside to clear my lungs immediately and to stay outside for at least 30 minutes.
Correct. It makes chlorine gas. Please do not combine vinegar with bleach.
It really is the norm! I put all of my flour into air-tight sealing containers. I usually see bugs in them within a few months of storage. They pop up in other things from time to time. Clearly EVERYTHING has eggs in it, it’s just a question of having enough time to hatch.
I am seriously considering freezing every starchy product that I buy just to kill the eggs. What a huge inconvenience that will be, but after finding bugs in 3 containers of flour (2 whole grain and one cake) I am getting really frustrated with these damn bugs!
I often wonder how the black spot are in my bags rice, I thought is over cooking it are maybe the store over dry it. But one day I look closely after I cook my rice and it was not a burnt rice grain but it was a bug, how did it get into the rice I never opened it. Now after reading, I have learned that it was already in there. How I been eating bugs all this time, is it make me stick. I am having a hard time eat rice now. I took a picture of it but I don’t see where I could posted a picture
I was making breakfast four my boys when I noticed something strange..I checked on the grits and it looked like oil floating on top. I looked closer & notice these were loads of Tiny bugs. Oh goodness it made my skin scrawl! This came by surprise giving the fact that I store my grains in glass sealed tight jars. Needless to say this was my first time ever seeing such a thing. Reading this provided a lot of information. Thanks! I’ll be cleaning the pantry with vinegar, checking all my grains and using the Bay leaves method. 🙂
I’m having trouble with what looks like tiny moths. They are hanging out in my dry goods cabinets but have ventured out & are flying around allover my house. Please help & tell me you know what they are & how to get rid of em.
Those do sound like moths! One likely snuck in there, laid eggs and now the eggs are hatching. Start looking in all the containers, bags, etc. to see if you can find eggs. I found a colony in a container of cashews once, after we left the container out and a moth flew in without us noticing!
Once you get these little buggers, it is hard to find the source. They like cardboard boxes, paper, grocery bags and can get under the outside rim of your canned jars. I think we got rid of everything that was not in glass, sealed plastic containers or canned goods. And washed everything down. Good luck.
Those are Indian Meal Moths. I don’t remember what we did to be rid of them. But, you now have a name. Good Luck!!
I have found those little critters in my uncooked rice, twice. First time in NYC and now here in the Caribbean. I only washed the riced and cooked it. The taste did not change at all. Truly, I hate it but if you are going to boil or steam the food, then it will be sanitized and good to eat.
Thank you Tiffany,
I have found your hints right on time when I declared war on bugs in our kitchen.
But do you know that the red color of our beloved velvet cake comes from squeezed bugs (don’t remember the name) which produce that pigment in their body when they mature?
Also, watch this video
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EFYnUS11x9c&index=3&list=PLOXGv_CEVfFfnmeZUtOhtDH89UTI-R2dw
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HaHaiOArGYc&list=PLOXGv_CEVfFfnmeZUtOhtDH89UTI-R2dw&index=2
and you will see what corporations add to our food to make it taste better or stay on shelf longer for better profits.
The red pigment that comes from bugs is called Carmine and it comes from, funny enough, the carmine beetle. If it is present in any food or cosmetic item, it will be listed individually on the ingredients list, separately from others that can fall under the catchall “natural and sythetic colors,” because there are a rare number of people who are very allergic to it.
It’s highly unlikely that any red food color contains carmine. It is allowed by FDA law, and you might find in certain products, but it would be very costly. Carmine is also a “fleeting” color – that is to say, it fades over time. It is more likely that any food color you buy, or any food that is red colored, is using FD&C red no. 3 or no. 40.
I made some delicious… Quinoa porridge the other day. Had bought the quinoa from a quality bulk supplier, stored it in a plastic container with a tight fitting lid, BUT had not used it for months, probably six months. Got to the last spoon full of porridge in my bowl and saw tiny bugs floating… Looked in the plastic container and it was crawling with bugs. A huge population! And the bottom of the container was full of, well you can imagine. Definitely gave me the heebie jeebies.
I just found out that the crumbs in the butter are actually tiny bugs :/ could they be weevils? Ive never seen this before and they aren’t in the flour or oats or corn. Just the butter! I can’t find anything online that relates weevils to butter!
I’ve never heard of this Mel… How would you get crumbs in the butter… like a new package?
I don’t know if you will see this after so many years, but if the tiny crumbs were moving on the butter, and you live down south, it’s probably ghost ants.
These things are extremely tiny. They are so tiny that I thought I was seeing things at first. No amount of cleaning gets rid of them nor does bug spray.
There was a special ointment that comes in syringes we found on Amazon. You squeeze the goo out in several areas where you see some ants (not anywhere pets can get to it.) If it is ghost ants, they will swarm the goo within an hour.
Eventually, you don’t see them any longer. They take that goo back to their nest and it wipes them out quickly. Ghost ants will come back if it rains hard outside. Just keep the stuff around and use it. Don’t spray them when they are swarming the goo. Then it won’t work to get rid of the nest.
Some ghost ants are more attracted to water. They ended up in my water pick, and in my iron. I didn’t even know they were in my iron. I don’t use it often but never drained it. I turned on the iron, and once it heated up, they came swarming out.
Other times they love fats. I placed an empty baloney wrapper in the trash. Came into the kitchen half hour later, they were all over that baloney wrapper.
My mom used to store everything but canned items in the refrigerator including our butter and sugar. I have a tone of sugars and flours for baking. I guess I will be throwing that stuff out now that I know those bugs in my flour are not ghost ants, and start storing everything in the freezer or fridge.
I made homemade chicken soup for the soup course in our Easter dinner this year. As guests were due to arrive soon, I added orzo pasta from an opened box to the big pot of soup. I did a second take to see tiny black pasta bugs floating in the soup.I tried skimming them out and then I strained all the soup and threw away all the meat and veggies and STILL there were some! I gave up on that batch of soup and started again with some extra soup I had put aside earlier and some homemade stock I had in the freezer. This time I added the orzo from a sealed box, thinking that would solve the problem. No such luck. There were just a few, but there they were. My beautiful soup sat there waiting to be part of the Easter feast. When my guests (my kids and grandkids) came, I told them what had happened thinking they would n’t care. I was wrong. We had a wonderful dinner without soup. All that soup went down the drain.
found meal worms in my barilla pasta box. store my flour in glass container with rubber seal from IKEA.