ACK! Bugs in my dry rice!?!?!?

Sugarflower · Post by **Sugarflower** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 9:02 pm

I grabbed the container of dry rice tonight to make some for dinner and as I scooped the rice into the cup I noticed TONS of teeny tiny bugs running around in the rice! It's a large infestation and I can't find out on my internet searches what exactly they are. I keep getting results mentioning rice weevils but they don't look like weevils, unless they are in the immature pupa stage, but I can't find photos for identification other than ones for the adults. They are so tiny they almost look like lice and they are almost the same color as the white rice except a little darker. Does anyone know what they may be?

blueheaven · Post by **blueheaven** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 9:35 pm

http://www.ipm.ucdavis.edu/PMG/L/I-CO-LORY-LV.004.html

Sugarflower · Post by **Sugarflower** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:35 pm

They didn't look like worms. From the info I've found it's a possibility they are young rice weevils but I'm still not positive. Still looking.

Keropi · Post by **Keropi** » Thu Feb 14, 2008 10:42 pm

Are they like those bugs you find in old flour that's been sitting around for a long time?

Yuck

moonrabitt · Post by **moonrabitt** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 3:26 am

Ewww...at least you didn't eat them....Are they baby maggots???

Sugarflower · Post by **Sugarflower** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 9:51 pm

They almost remind me of lice or teeny tiny aphids. Thankfully not worms, maggots, or meal worms. After I disturbed them they dried to hide further down into the rice. I still can't find info on them.

Not Sir Phobos · Post by **Not Sir Phobos** » Fri Feb 15, 2008 11:23 pm

Time to bomb you're house.

It's cheap and easy if you get the ones from the grocery store.

moonrabitt · Post by **moonrabitt** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 1:00 am

Did it look like this???

http://images.search.yahoo.com/search/i ... 8&ei=UTF-8

If so ....they are "clothes moths"

Cloud · Post by **Cloud** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 1:01 am

I'm not certain whether about it look like this.

Post by **sensei** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 8:51 am

Sounds more like you have cigarette or drugstore beetles. There's a description that fits what you say here:

http://www.pantrypest.com/cigarette.htm

Despite the name, they generally don't come in the house by way of contaminated batches of marijuana or offshore bootleg Viagra, but usually with dried pet food, which they're partial to and isn't stored very carefully before it's packed and sold. (And noooooo you don't want to know what's in dried pet food!) But I once got a bag of rice at a grocery that, on closer inspection when I got home, came with its own growing community of little crawlies, all carefully sealed up in the plastic bag in which they were packed and stored.

I didn't keep them around long enough to remember exactly how they looked, but I do remember that they were little crawly beetles rather than the gross squirmy worms that pantry moths give birth to.

Post by **sensei** » Sat Feb 16, 2008 9:41 am

PS, don't bomb your house. All the advisory I read said that most commercial pesticides won't touch these guys without leaving all sorts of exotic and potentially carcinogenic substances in the foodstuffs you're planning to eat later this week. And if you cover up these food items ... well ... you're not going to eliminate the critters either. (And they are tough buggers anyhow. One source noted that they'd been found on strychnine-coated wheat kernals being stored for planting purposes.)

Inspect any grain product you have in your kitchen for signs of them, throw out any that you even suspect, and vacuum the insides of your cupboards. Then get a good pheromone trap for beetles to catch the adults that are hiding in the cracks of the wood, waiting to mate and install the next generation in your canisters. (Make sure you positively ID the insect so you get the right trap.)

Good luck!