# Weevils in Flour



## FarmerGreen (Dec 11, 2007)

I was talking to my cousin last night and he asked me if I ever get weevils in my flour. I told him we didn't store much flour because of that reason. We haven't had any, but we don't keep it long. He said he used to, but he hasn't had any in years. Even in two year old flour. Are they doing something different to flour? Are weevils just not prevalent anymore? I really hadn't noticed till he mentioned it.


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

Well.. I am sure that the big flour producers gas the flour or something beforehand so that the weevil eggs in the flour don't hatch.. But I get weevils in my pantry sometimes. Not pleasant, but oh well. There it is. I just try to keep my beans in big canning jars and watch my flour etc... there was reason they made sifters.


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

I got "wee evils" in bagged feed whole wheat a couple of years ago but the only thing I have ever found in flour is those Indian meal moths....


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## 7thswan (Nov 18, 2008)

Only time I had a problem is when I loaded flour into the sifter on th Hooiser, sadly,now it's just for looks.


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## GoldenCityMuse (Apr 15, 2009)

Freezing your flour, rice, beans, lentils, etc will kill them.


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## Shrek (May 1, 2002)

baking at 325 degrees kills weevils in flour and makes them tast just like bread and the bread is the extra protein variety. Sifting out weevils really doesnt work because the sifter usually just grinds them up enoungh to fit through the sift screen.

My father used to pick weevils out of flour and eat them liketequila worms and say "Many a POW was greatful for the weevils in the flour ration" and then remind me they were no worse than the bugs hiding out in broccolli, Asparagus, cauliflower and blackberries as they were all organic foods.


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

Putting a bay leaf on top of the flour will keep weevils out. I forgot to put some in my last batch of flour and when I opened it, it was full of weevils. I sifted them out, and no, the sifter doesn't grind them up (at least mine doesn't.) A few small weevils will go thru the screen, but they're easy to spot and pick out. The rest of them will be on the screen when the flour finishes going thru the screen. Simply dump them and refill the sifter for the next batch of flour that needs to be "de-bugged". 

For those of you who think it's terrible to "de-bug" flour and use it... you'd be really horrified if you followed it back to it's origins.


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## meanwhile (Dec 13, 2007)

You can EAT THEM??? I thought they were nasty or germy?


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

Yeppers. Folks have been happily eating weevils for ages.
And, hate to mention it, but you eat much worse than a clean little flour bug in every chocolate bar...


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## Astrid (Nov 13, 2010)

chickenista said:


> Yeppers. Folks have been happily eating weevils for ages.
> And, hate to mention it, but you eat much worse than a clean little flour bug in every chocolate bar...




Yeah, apparently there are "acceptable" levels of pus in commercial milk and insect parts in other processed food... ew.


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## kirkmcquest (Oct 21, 2010)

I think the idea is to freeze your flour for a few days THEN store it in tight containers, this kills the bug eggs.


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## ladybug (Aug 18, 2002)

This is true, there is some pretty nasty stuff in commercially processed food- we've had a problem with the moths in our rice and some small white straight things in our bags of beans. The things in the beans appear to not be insects, not sure what they are but they are in bags we've had stored for at least a year. Any idea if they are okay to eat, we've been using them with no problems but they weren't properly stored to begin with. Rice seems to still be okay but we check it all by hand now.


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