FOOD MOTHS: WHAT THEY ARE AND HOW TO STOP THEM WITH MONITOR TRAPS

Food moths, also known as flour moths or indianmeal moths, are small insects that love warm, dry and dark environments. They thrive in our homes, particularly in food storage areas, where they find all of these conditions in addition to an abundance of food.

They are small moths no more than a centimetre in length, with brown/ochre wings divided into two bands of colour and a ravenous appetite, above all for pasta, flour and cereals, although they also enjoy nuts, sugar, chocolate and dry foods in general.

They are particularly active from March to October, but the temperature in our homes allows them to also thrive during the cold season.

Food moths neither sting nor buzz, but they contaminate the foods on which they feed by laying their eggs, thus guaranteeing their larvae food when they hatch. These larvae, which appear as small whitish/yellowish grubs with dark heads, cover the food with silky threads and leave traces of excrement and exoskeleton remains as they grow.

The reproductive capacity of food moths is the biggest problem, as they can deposit up to 300 eggs, meaning that people can easily find their food stores ruined.

If you see food moths in your home, you will need to quickly examine your food stores: the eggs are almost impossible to see (they are smaller than 0.5 mm), but you can look for hatched larvae or signs of their passage, such as the silky threads that look like thin cobwebs. In the case of closed packets of food, look for holes where the insects may have entered. Once you have found the contaminated food, all you have to do is throw it away.

What can you do to defend your home from food moths?

First of all, it takes attention and cleanliness: favour hermetically sealed containers, and regularly clean both these and the shelves of food compartments, preferably with white vinegar, in order to stop food moths from getting to their source of nutrition.

Another useful tool in the fight against these pests is the monitor trap for food moths.

Monitor traps for food moths are adhesive sheets soaked in a substance that attracts this type of insect, generally a female pheromone that helps to capture the males and thus stop the females from breeding.

This is therefore not a biocide with active ingredients, and it can therefore be used without problems in the presence of children or pets, and also allows monitoring of the presence of food moths in the home in order to understand the seriousness of the infestation and, if necessary, take more drastic steps.

Monitor traps for food moths have a double-sided adhesive strip, allowing them to be positioned wherever needed. In their simplest form they are a basic white sheet but can also be made with designs and paper structures that render them more attractive.

IGO produces a wide range of monitor traps to contract, including those against food moths.

For more than 15 years, IGO has been a certified Medical and Surgical Device Manufacturer and provides the contract manufacture of insecticide products for domestic and civil use on substrates such as cellulose, granules or mixtures, and various types of liquid solutions to which one or more active substances have been added.

Browse our catalogue of monitor traps and contact us for further information.