Seed/Grain Moths

[crazedACD]

Is there anyway to eradicate these little bastards? I have them kind of bad in my bedroom with the birds. I'm trying to change the bird cages every day or every other day, keeping the floor vacuumed, food sealed, and so forth. I had a sealed tupperware container with seed for the doves..umm they appeared in there. I just went to open my bucket of fish food, seems to be a very sealed container, it snaps shut..they are in there all of a sudden like whoa.

I've started buying bird pellets by the big bag, and I'm terrified they are going to end up in there. I'm going to try a 5 gallon bucket with a gamma lid I think but if they got in the fish food...I don't know. I don't get how they get in there.

I've used the traps...they trap some, and then more appear.

 

[smkie]

We froze the seed when we got it, one thing Mom felt was that the birds never liked the seed as much when it was afflicted. IT took pouring it into many small sealed containers but at least it put at end to the hatching.

 

[Romy]

Put food grade diatomaceous earth in the seed.

It'll kill ANY creepy crawlies in it. Prevent mold because it's a desiccant. And it's good for the birds if they have any internal parasites.

 

[Samantha's pet]

OMG, I have heard they can invade your pantry and when that happens it's a very expensive disaster! You pretty much have to throw out everything ans start completely over with all air tight containers. If they appear in a container it is either not truly air tight, or there was larvae/eggs that got in there unnoticed when it was open. Better do what you can to get rid of them before they get into YOUR food.

 

[SoCrafty]

Just keep vacuuming. Look for any web looking things in the cage and around the cage and vacuum it then clean the tray and cage with bird safe cleaner - or put the birds in a travel cage and wash the cage with a bleach/water combo ( make sure to rinse extremely well!) either throw out the entire containers or empty them (yes you'll lose all of the food). If you just empty them, make sure to wash the containers with hot water and bleach/water.

In the future - put any seed you buy in the freezer for 24-48 hours before putting it in the containers. If you are going to keep them in air tight containers, make sure the room it's kept is not too warm.

In the room get your vacuum attachment and vacuum where the carpet meets the wall, the ceilings (especially in the corners), fans etc. you'll have to do this every day or close to every day until you don't see any more moths.

I had this happen about 4 years ago. I bought seed from an independent pet store.