Keeping Bugs Out Of Your Food

My mom has told me about some of her childhood experiences visiting her grandparents in the summer. Often, when they poured out the syrup there were ants floating in it. (Those were the days before pesticides). She vividly remembers how her grandpa told them they had to eat the syrup anyway.

I love to gross out my grandkids with that story! Today, most of us wouldn’t dream of eating something that had bugs in it but food was very expensive back then, much more so than it is now, even with the rising prices. They made sure not to waste anything.

With rising food prices, many people are trying to to find ways to earn more money but it might be better to learn to take care of the food we do buy and not waste it. This would go a long way in saving money on our grocery budgets.

One way to do avoid waste is to take care of the bugs. Here are a couple of tips to help you prevent bugs from getting out of control:

1. Place flour in your freezer for 24 hours. This will kill any bugs or larva in the flour. Yes, there are usually bugs or larva in flour.

   If you tend to find bugs in rice or pasta, freeze those items for 24 hours too.

2. Wipe down your pantry shelves with Lysol concentrate. It’s the Lysol that comes in the brown bottle, not the spray. At one point, I lived in a house that had been built in 1917 and, no matter what I did, I couldn’t get rid of the weevils and little bugs. An exterminator once told me to completely wipe down the insides of my kitchen cabinets with Lysol concentrate and it was the only thing that worked.

   You might want to wipe down everything with Lysol once a year. It’s a good way to keep your cabinets cleaned and organized. It will also help you find and use food you forgot you had that might have been getting outdated.

I know this may take some extra work but if paying attention to little details like this helps you avoid having to get a second or third job it may be worth it.

-Jill

photo by: advencap