# Ok, lets talk about bugs....



## bee (May 12, 2002)

I have been telling you about the salvage food store I have been frequenting(1.00 expresso grind coffee..remember?). On a recent trip they had a pile of "Hambeans" brand 15 bean soup with a "normal" retail all over town well over 2.00 a package. Theirs was 69 cents, bags had expiration date into 2013. Several packages of split peas too, same price. Well I grabbed 3 and Mom grabbed one and I got 2 split peas into the buggy and then did the mandatory "bug" check. LOTS of dead "wee-evil" beetles in the split peas(took those up to the register for them to deal with); searched the pea pile and found one with none so took it. Mom had already put her bag of 15 bean back, I checked mine and swapped one out for one that I saw nothing in; bought 3. Took them home and put them outside to freeze for a week. Searched them and jared them today. Out of 3 bags of the mix I found 4 dead, dried wee-evil beetles. Frankly not enough for me to worry about. When I rinse before cooking I will check again..cooking will solve any lingering problem...missed "additonal protien" will never be seen.
:shocked:
Now, at what point in this chain would YOU have gotten to "deal breaker"??
Remember I am storing these for rotational use; and there are still plenty of beans to be bought out there. Do you(like me) just kinda shrug and say "natural product"...no way to know just what has been in contact with those beans along the way?
BTW, rodent droppings ARE a deal breaker if ever found in any foods.:run:

Comments??


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## the mama (Mar 1, 2006)

I routinely freeze all beans, pasta, rice, oatmeal and flours. Then repackage them in air tight containers. I wont buy bags that have been opened. I have not found rodent droppings ...ewwww.


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## Cindy in NY (May 10, 2002)

Rodent droppings would be a deal breaker for me as well!!

Any dead bugs in beans should float to the top when you soak them!


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## chickenista (Mar 24, 2007)

Yeah.. rodent droppings would be bad..
As far as the bugs in beans, gotta make sure that they didn't eat the insides of the beans. Nothing like 'hull' soup for dinner.


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## NickieL (Jun 15, 2007)

I remember being so hungry at one point in my life that we ate very old pasta and such, we jsut skimed off all the bugs that floated to the top....and there were a lot....


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## Honduras Trish (Nov 30, 2007)

Ohhh, is this the place for me to tell my "bugs in the rice" joke? This is from my dh's family . . . they served two terms as missionaries in Southeast Asia when dh was a boy. (You need to know that, in some organizations, missionaries would go out for a term of 4 years, then have a year of furlough in the states. So, for instance, a "second term missionary" would be in their second four years of living overseas.)

Okay, then . . .



When first term missionaries find bugs in their rice, they throw it out.

When second term missionaries find bugs in their rice, they sift out the bugs and eat the rice.

When third term missionaries find bugs in their rice, they just go ahead and eat it, bugs and all.

When first term missionaries find bugs in the rice, they sift out the bugs, eat the bugs, and give the rice to the first term missionaries.


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## TheMartianChick (May 26, 2009)

I don't want bugs or rodent droppings in my food. I've never been in a desperate situation where I felt that I was forced to deal with something like that. I opened a box of commercial bread mix once and some sort of moth flew out. I returned the box to the store...In a SHTF situation, I'd probably be grateful for the additional protein and go searching for Mickey Mouse to add to my bean soup. Until that day comes...none of the tainted beans would stay in my home.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Buying from the store, one bug is a deal breaker. It means the beans are old and were stored improperly meaning less nutritious and harder to cook.

In my own preps, sometimes bugs happen. They get sifted or floated out. Unless the bugs were in my peanut butter cups (yep, it happens) I wouldn't toss the food unless there were more than a dozen bugs per pound. Now if the product has huge spots where I can see the bugs have been eating and their feeding has destroyed the product I will toss it and remember to store things better next time.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

I have enough trouble with weevils and mealy moth eggs that I don't see (even after freezing). If I see visible signs of infection, it doesn't come home with me. Not worth the risk, unless I'm eating whatever it is, that evening, and throwing the packaging in the fire.


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## Spinner (Jul 19, 2003)

Any signs of bugs in the store or the packages, I don't buy & it doesn't come to my house.


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## bee (May 12, 2002)

packages were dated for 2013 so not old. All "wee evils" were dead..if they had been moving they would have been handed to the store owner.... I live in a log home(lots of bug hidey spots) and it is too cold to put the dog out all day to 'bomb" the place so I am extra cautious with what I bring home.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Were they all boy wee evils or were there girl wee evils in the bag too. 
Adult bugs means there has been reproduction and egg laying going on. The packages were full of wee evil eggs.


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## hintonlady (Apr 22, 2007)

Unless you have never eaten a hotdog, packaged foods, out away from home...ever, you have probably eaten rodent raisins, weevils, hair and much worse.

The food world is a lot more icky than manufacturers and corps. want us to know.

Personally, I like hot dogs, raisins and all.


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## Shrarvrs88 (May 8, 2010)

ugh. I just don't think about it. And i eat it.


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## texican (Oct 4, 2003)

hintonlady said:


> Unless you have never eaten a hotdog, packaged foods, out away from home...ever, you have probably eaten rodent raisins, weevils, hair and much worse.
> 
> The food world is a lot more icky than manufacturers and corps. want us to know.
> 
> Personally, I like hot dogs, raisins and all.


I like food too. [I've eaten some (to others) some disgusting stuff. ]That's the reason I don't like getting infestations... I've opened stuff that I thought was protected, and there was more bug than food. When the bugs start dying, the decay level at some points renders whatever food that was there before, inedible (unless you've scrubbed your nasal sensors). Having worked in plumbing before, I have the ability to turn my 'smell'r' off.


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## yikes (Jan 23, 2011)

helping at a local food pantry would be a good way to gain experience at making these kinds of decisions. and it's fun.


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## stormywood (Jul 10, 2009)

I was hungry, until I read this! Should post it in the weight loss forum!


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## secretcreek (Jan 24, 2010)

yikes said:


> helping at a local food pantry would be a good way to gain experience at making these kinds of decisions. and it's fun.


Yep. just last night I took current inventory of our food pantry stock and while lifting bags of rice that no one protected- just laying open on the shelf...I saw that a mouse had made bite marks into the bag. That'll gross out the the tidy ol' ladies who even wear hairnets in their own kitchens...but I'll just take the bag home and rebag it in a ziplock over wasting a whole bag of clean rice. 

When I was a kid, I was cracking open almonds and eating them. One nut that I popped into my mouth w/o looking, felt funny. I un-popped and gagged when I saw that it had been a miller moth bug home complete with the little fuzzy web stuff, etc... BUT now I know that if I see that I know to pass that bag of rice, etc. up for something not visually infested anyway.


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

The thing with adult beetles in the bag is that there are already baby beetles working away at the beans inside. Half eaten beans weigh less than uneaten beans. I would rather spend a little more for uneaten beans than half eaten beans. 

And yes, I know what bugs and rat raisins are in processed food. And there's almost no getting away from it. Kind of like the cow poop that got ground up in your hamburger. The bugs are why my grandpa would never eat a fig newton made by Sunshine Bakery. Rat raisins are why my former neighbor never ate bread from Big Bear. Both would eat the competitors products but only because they didn't _see_ what went into those.


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## SpaceCadet12364 (Apr 27, 2003)

The seeing of the procedures and/or what goes into food being prepared commercially, such as in a fast food restaurant, is one of the reasons there's that saying that if you ever work at a McD/BK/Wendys/wherever...you tend to not want to eat there ever again, or at least not very often.

Isn't there some sort of guidelines where there are so many parts per million or what of non-food product allowed in processed foods?


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## JuliaAnn (Dec 7, 2004)

We shop at a salvage/scratch and dent store too, and so far, fortunately, I haven't bought anything buggy. However, I don't generally buy pasta, beans, flour or sugar there. The place looks and seems to be clean, but it's really old, and it's creepy. When I see a bag of flour or sugar sitting on one of those old formica shelves, I am afraid something on the shelf would soak through the bag. I don't know if that has ever happened, but the thought goes through my mind every time I go in there. I generally only buy canned stuff, sealed coffee, sometimes soap or t.p., and some frozen items. I do buy the boxes of cereal that have been smushed, but I pull down on the bottom flap a little and shake the box to make sure nothing comes out, and that way I know the inner bag is still sealed. So far, it's a good way to make sure.

For flour, sugar, pasta, beans, rice, etc., I usually wait until there is a really good sale somewhere. In this area, rice is cheapest in October and November because that's harvest time here, and I can get a 20 lb. bag of Douget's (grown not far from here) for about $5.00. Any other time of year it's almost $10.00. So I buy several bags and freeze them and stock up at that time. Flour and sugar also bought during the holiday baking times, and also frozen and stored. 

But to answer the original question... I've eaten stuff before that had bugs in it, out of dire necessity. Just sifted the bugs out and figured that any insect feces were sterilized/neutralized/denatured by cooking. However, I won't knowingly buy something with visible bugs, either live or dead, because I'm paranoid about letting anything into my stored food preps that could contaminate and waste them.


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