December 14, 1999

We have an infestation – although that’s probably overstating the actual conditions -- of little moths. About a month ago, we’d see these critters flitting around the kitchen. When JoAnna checked the cupboard where we store our cereals, Bisquick, and flour, she found most of these items to be contaminated. We threw out every open package, emptied the cupboard, and cleaned it thoroughly. Since then we’ve found the moths all over the house – in the bedrooms, the living room, the family room. They are always single sightings. Fortunately, they don’t travel in packs. The worst day was the Friday of our card party, which the moths blessedly decided not to show up for, saving us the embarrassment of having to give an explanation to our guests. Since then, we haven’t seen too many of them. I asked the Orkin guy this morning during his monthly visit. (We’ve stuck with an indoor and outdoor spraying program ever since a major ant infestation a couple years ago, which quickly eliminated the problem. The one time I considered dropping the service, the ants started to show up again. I’d swear they were on the Orkin payroll.)

In fact, there was even a moth attached to the ceiling of the hallway, which I pointed out to him, having refrained from killing this evidence when I first spotted it a half hour before his arrival.

“You’ve got Indian meal moths,” he quickly diagnosed.

I told him how we had addressed this problem.

“You did the right thing,” he said.

He suggested we monitor things for a month and, if conditions don’t improve by then, said we might want to consider a spraying of the interior of the cupboards. I hope we can avoid doing that.

At the library today, I found a book entitled Pest Control for Home and Garden that had four pages of information under the topic of “Pantry Pests”, where the Indian meal moth was featured. What I read here confirmed what the Orkin guy told me: dumping and cleaning first, chemicals as a last resort.

Now you’ll never want to visit us, thinking we live in a roach motel! I would like to know how these moths got into the house in the first place.