Use a bay leaf in your flour canister to keep bugs out all year. I make a lot of bread and use a lot of flour. This works. The more flour the more bay leaves. - Sue
You just need to put the bay leaves on top of the flour. You don't want flavors mixing. I use BLs in cooking as well. If you keep your flour in a cool or cold place, you really don't need the BLs. If you fear infestation, pop your flour into the freezer for a few days to kill the larvae/bugs and then keep cool. Getting an infestation is horrible to get rid of. Check also other grain foods such as rice cakes (this brings is alot) cereals, crackers. Do the same treatment. I have used the bay leaf theory for over 30+ years and change them out of the cupboards regularly spring and fall. Bugs and friends are a thing of the past. Purchase them at a food coop or natural food store will assure the freshest product. They loose effectiveness with heat/light exposure like many spices/herbs. A fresh BL should have a pleasant smell. A NO SMELL is an old package. Don't forget to use them in the bread drawer, and other places you store foods. Also don't forget PET FOOD also carried the bugs at a higher rate. My dog's treats got put into tupperware and should have seen the bugs crawl inside the container!!!!
I go to the food coops and buy the food grade containers, or you can ask your local bakery, as many food prep products come in those buckets, etc. Local grocery gets frosting in nice 3 gallon size. I also buy my dog's food in bulked size and store into these sealable buckets. RECYCLE! REUSE!
we had an infestation of meal bugs over a year ago. It lasted way longer than I ever wanted it to. I kept finding stuff they'd been in. There is no telling the total amount of foods we had to toss out. I read somewhere about bay leaves. We bought several bottles of bay leaves and distributed them around in our pantry room & sure enough, the bay leaves did what bug sprays, and room foggers couldn't do!!! I'll keep them forever in my pantry & home!!!
Guess I will revive this topic with new feedback. I also bake my own bread and use lots of flour. I buy flour in 10 pound bags, place the bag in my freezer for about 3 days, and then open it and pour it into my flour bucket (which is a 5 gallon bucket with tight fitting lid that I got from a donut shop). Due to the freezing and then storing in a tightly closed container, I never have buggy flour. And to keep bugs out of other pantry products, such as oatmeal. crackers, rice, pasta, etc., open the packages and transfer them to gallon glass jars or plastic containers that have screw on lids or other tight seals before you put them in the cupboard.
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