Where do flour grubs come from.

[DXP55]

Monday the wife opened as new bag of flour and inside was a load of very small grub/maggots. - We have had them before but were do they come from. This was a unopened packet and it was stored in a air tight plastic container so I am hoping they were in the flour to start with.
I can't ever remember seeing them in anything else - not even pasta.
Talking to a guy in supermarket and he bought a very large sack of dog food (breeder) and when he opened it it was riddled and they had spread all round his pantry - Dog food maker paid for the clean up.

Any ideas - I could google it but wanted real live reports.

 

[bremen1874]

Tiny, tiny, black dots?

AFAIK the weevil eggs are already in the flour when you buy it. I've only had them appear in flour that I'd kept hanging around for too long, never in a new bag.

I have seen recommendations to freeze flour for 24 hours to kill them off.

 

[Orionaut]

I have seen recommendations to freeze flour for 24 hours to kill them off.

You mean baking them won't??

One of my Dads National Service stories was about when people complained about flour grubs in the bread.

The sergeants response was...

"What are you complaining about? There is nothing in them but flour!"

 

[Zefan]

I feel like I didn't need to know these existed. Thanks

 

[arknor]

I've never had weeviles and I've got plain flower in the cupboard thats been there about 5 years undisturbed, also got bread flour thats over a year old half used.


I keep them in a kitchen cupboard above the sink though.

my pantry cupboard I have crawling insect powder on the floor and it's quite shocking how many things die on the floor in there and I've no idea where they come from.

they must live in the walls or floor, silverfish, the odd beetle, a couple of spiders etc every month guaranteed to die in there

 

[bremen1874]

"What are you complaining about? There is nothing in them but flour!"

It's a free source of additional protein.

 

[DXP55]

Our flour is stored in cupboards in the kitchen - we are not posh enough to have a pantry.

This was a fairly new packet - probably purchased at start of lockdown. We don't use it much.

ps. by the way you could see them crawling about.

 

[Noakesy85]

We've had them in the past.

We used to pour the packets into Kilner Jars to try and keep it as fresh as possible, which also had the added bonus of being able to see the contents and knowing if anything was moving around in there.

That practice stopped after we moved back to the UK and we didnt really have the cupboard space for multiple jars of flour.

 

[D3K]

I feel like I didn't need to know these existed. Thanks

This. It's to be expected from poor kitchen hygiene, but to expect them in there shop bought?!

Had it in rice once, but to be fair I hadn't kept the bag sealed correctly. Didn't notice until they were all curled up floating at the top of the boiling water. Really glad I wasn't using a steamer, there's a chance I wouldn't have noticed if I stuck the paddle in and gave it a stir before serving!

 

[arknor]

Our flour is stored in cupboards in the kitchen - we are not posh enough to have a pantry.

It's a one bed tenement that's only luxury is being next to the city centre.
my pantry cupboard is basically a small cupboard something like 0.5metres wide and 2 metres long with some shelves on the walls.

you can just about walk inside and then shuffle sideways a long a bit and it's really only there because of the lack of cupboard space in a small flat.

it's not always posh to have one

 

[DXP55]

it's not always posh to have one

Tongue in cheek my friend

Did a bit of googling and you can put it in freezer forever providing its in a air tight container - you can then defrost it and keep it in fridge.
This will be our new way of keeping flour - good job we don't use much as there isn't a lot of room in freezer.

I have a feeling we downsized too much.

 

[Mercenary Keyboard Warrior]

They always used to say they would get in at the mill

With the demand for flour recently the probably got round to sweeping the floor and sticking it in packets

 

[drakulton]

microwaving the flour when you get it should nuke the little buggers.

 

[Ninco!]

They always used to say they would get in at the mill

With the demand for flour recently the probably got round to sweeping the floor and sticking it in packets

Would not be surprised. When I was a student I worked in a flour mill. The amount of the waste that builds up everywhere, floor, machinery etc, I can imagine this happening. This was 20 plus years ago.

I have never known eye irritation like it, accidentally gouged my eyeball in my sleep due to dust - still have/see the scar on my eyeball!

 

[flea.rider]

lol if you knew what was allowed to go into bread and sweets ..you would be amazed .. worked at burtons sweets for a few yrs .. we had a weevil infestation .. one hot yr .. we worked out that 10% of the four was weevil but used it ..
ok'ed from management the liquorice tasted fine

 

[arknor]

how can 10% weevil flour be legit to use in a factory

do they still count the products as fine for vegetarians as well

 

[Orionaut]

how can 10% weevil flour be legit to use in a factory

do they still count the products as fine for vegetarians as well

Flour weevils are the reason (Historically) why Vegetarians don't all die of B12 deficiency.