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Flour mites and bay leaves

B3B3 Posts: 26,417
in The potting shed
Several sites on Google recommend bay leaves to deter flour mites.
What do you reckon?
In London. Keen but lazy.

Posts

  • ObelixxObelixx Posts: 29,626
    Try it and see?
    Vendée - 20kms from Atlantic coast.
    "We don't stop playing because we grow old; we grow old because we stop playing." - George Bernard Shaw
  • ButtercupdaysButtercupdays Posts: 4,459
    I decant the flour into secure lidded plastic boxes and have had no problems even with less frequently used flours. Some of our lamb milk came ready supplied with weevils though...
  • B3B3 Posts: 26,417
    edited August 2022
    I'm going to. Just spent an hour bleaching the cupboard and chucking out stuff - again!
    My bread flour is fine as far as I can tell. It's kept in a sealed container but the ordinary flour was in the homepride boxes.
    It's not fair. I'm really particular about storing flour etc. Obviously some shops are less particular
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • DovefromaboveDovefromabove Posts: 85,981
    edited August 2022
    I asked on the Foodie Forum 

    the responses are here 

    http://sakkarin.co.uk/viewtopic.php?t=46&sid=6106314e7c328220ffe02a583efa6713 

    Scroll down a bit …

    Gardening in Central Norfolk on improved gritty moraine over chalk ... free-draining.





  • FireFire Posts: 17,307
    I decanted some rolled oat straight into a sealed Kilner jar last year. I always keep grains in sealed jars. I went to used them yesterday and found the whole jar crawling with mites. So foul. They must have come with the oats. I chucked the whole lot out.

  • B3B3 Posts: 26,417
    Thanks for link @Dovefromabove. I suppose you never would know whether you'd have had them or not.
    I was wondering where they would go. Somewhere the bay leaves weren't? That's not good either.
    There were suggestions that you freeze affected flour for 4 days. Apparently this kills the mites and the eggs. Yuk! I don't want to eat dead mites either and anyway, I would rather see the flour moving so that I know they're there and can dispose of them.egg
    I'll put a few leaves in the flour canister anyway. 
    @Fire check the other hard and the shelf too. They can be on the outside of a jar and drop in when you open it.
    Am I getting paranoid - probably
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • FireFire Posts: 17,307
    I have gone round shaking all the jars to see if anything is crawling inside.

    The do say that this is why we are instructed to sieve flour - only to get the eggs and bugs out. Flour is one of the things I don't keep past its sell buy date. The oils can go rancid too.
  • B3B3 Posts: 26,417
    It'd have to be a really small seive to catch the bugs never mind he eggs!
    In London. Keen but lazy.
  • B3B3 Posts: 26,417
    I have a cunning plan that doesn't involve bay leaves.
    I've chucked out most dried foods, washed everything in a bleach solution and I will leave the cupboard empty of food for a few weeks.
    I'm not certain I got them all and some eggs might hatch so here's the plan.
    I'm going to leave a small dish of white flour in the cupboard. Hopefully anything alive will be attracted to the only source of food.
    When I eventually refill the cupboard, I will continue to use a dish of flour so that I can inspect it regularly until the paranoia wears off.
    In London. Keen but lazy.
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