These things appeared in friends flat. What are they?

  • Fosheze@lemmy.world
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    4 hours ago

    Grain moth larva. Good luck. The damn things are a pain to get rid of once you have them. You’ll want to pitch any food that isn’t 100% air tight sealed (bags or boxes of cereal, rice, flour, sugar, noodles, etc.) and then clean out any cabinets really well to make sure you get rid of as many eggs as possible. After that make sure you don’t leave any food unsealed for the next few months because odds are they will keep popping back up ocasionally for a bit and if they can get into anything when they do then the infestation starts all over. As far as infestations go they aren’t the worst to deal with but they are anoying.

    • blackbrook@mander.xyz
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      4 hours ago

      Not just sealed. They will get into sealed cardboard boxes and through thin plastic. Like bags, forget it. Everything either needs to go into glass, metal, the fridge, or thick plastic, like tupperware. Also they will eat stuff you’d never expect, like spices, even hot pepper.

        • blackbrook@mander.xyz
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          47 minutes ago

          I’m not giving anyone orders, just trying to convey how ridiculously anal you have to be about it get rid of them. I went through several rounds of “surely these things will be ok, they aren’t open / in a ziplock / not something it would possibly want to eat” repeatedly failing to get rid of them before finally putting EVERYTHING into glass, Tupperware or the fridge.

          A flamethrower might work too.

  • PonyOfWar@pawb.social
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    6 hours ago

    Yes, it is. If they’re in a flat, probably flour moths. Your friend should check any containers with food, especially grains.

  • nocturne@sopuli.xyz
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    5 hours ago

    Looks like some fried rice I got once in Santa Carla back in the 80s. Thinking about it, eating take out with some dudes in a cave under a pier probably was not the smartest of things to do.

    • AwkwardLookMonkeyPuppet@lemmy.world
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      3 hours ago

      You’re still going on about that? They were only noodles, Michael! Noodles and rice. Tell me, how could a billion Chinese people be wrong?

  • tobogganablaze@lemmus.org
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    6 hours ago

    I’m quite outside of my expertise here, but I think it might be a mealworm. A beetle larvae. That would technically make it not a maggot (which are fly larvae).

    But it’s just a guess.

    @PonyOfWar@pawb.social’s suggestion fits better.