Ack! I do have bugs
It turns out that my rant about the bugs in my closet may have been closer to the truth than I thought. Today, when I got home from work, I decided to make a quick pasta and sautéd vegetable sauce. I put a pot of water on to boil and started chopping and stir frying the veggies. The veggies were well on their way to perfection when the water reached a roaring boil. I quickly ducked into the pantry and pulled out an unopened bag of pasta [unopened being the key word here]. As soon as I slit open the top and poured the noodles into the water, I noticed strange black blobs floating in the water.
A closer looked confirmed that they were indeed BUGS! Lots and lots of bugs. I then grabbed the bag of pasta for a closer look and found that there were dozens of bugs infested in the bag [the sealed bag that is...]. The bugs had obviously been there for a while as many of the noodles had clear signs of nesting and routing going on -- I was surprised that some of the noodles were even able to retain their distinctive noodle-shape. Wanting to neither eat the pasta, nor let the bugs live on in my garbage can, I decided to throw all the pasta in the pot and boil them to death [it's my new and untested evil side showing through].
A verification of my other bags of pasta revealed similar symptoms. Now pastaless and riceless [there are moths in the rice!] I settled down to quite a tasty dinner of stir fried veggies doused with the President's Peanut Sauce. Thankfully the bugs haven't figured out a way to bore through glass or metal. I heard that carbs are overrated anyways.
posted by Karen @ 10:02 p.m.
6 Comments:
Ummm...yuck.
I'd definately stick to glassed-in stuff for a while. Or, as I learned when my house was mouse-infested, keep everything in the fridge. They can't get in there.
I am suprised and disgusted that bugs could survive in a sealed bag. Yuck..
Well the bags may have been sealed...but that's only to the untrained eye. When I lived in "the South" I always had to put those things in airtight containers.
Check your flour too...for some reason they don't like sugar, which doesn't reall make sense does it?
Pasta bugs are common and harmless. Especially with pasta that is shipped for Italy throughout the world. As far back as the early 90s, Mrs. TBF (who is Italian American) and I would put the pasta we bought at the little Italian grocery into the freezer upon bringing it home. That seems to do the trick, plus it has no detrimental effects on the pasta.
Wow, TBF -- I figured it was related to the heat and humidity, but now I see that it can be a more general phenomenon. Do the Italians do this to keep us alert and on our toes? Good thing I have a rather large freezer!
Michael, for some reason, they seem to leave the flour alone. But I do check every so often just to make sure. Otherwise ... crunch!
When we moved into my mother's house, we had a moth problem. They seemed to be able to wriggle their way into regular jars and tupperware containers. The only thing that kept them out was Mason jars. They would burrow their way under the rim, but couldn't get past the rubber seal. We still use mason jars for all of our dry goods. Hope this tip helps.
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