Little Bugs in Corn Meal Where Did they Come From?

Question

I can barely write about this again, and I am so grossed out that I might never bread fish again.Last night I prepared tilapia that I breaded in corn meal (about 6 months old), mixed with old bay, and put into the oven to bake. After all was in the oven, I took a look into the bag of corn meal, and only then did I notice it was crawling with very tiny black bugs! Echh! I had to toss all the fish, and got so frustrated. I gave the family scramble eggs for dinner since I could handle preparing anything else. Anyone know how these bugs got their in the 1st place? Was the it just too old? The bag was in a sealed plastic bag in a dark dry cupboard. & what were these bugs? We took a look at the other dry items, and they were clean.

Answer

They hatched in there... icky I know, but a fact of life. Sometimes grains and flours come with hitch-hikers and that's all there is to it.

Answer

Relax. They happen.
I keep my corn meal and flour in a zip-lock bag in the fridge for just the same reason.

Answer

Yes, you usually bring them home from the store. After a couple of meal moth infestations, I've adopted the habit of sticking all grains, pulses, dried spices and other possible vectors in the freezer for 3-4 days. No problems since I began doing so.

Answer

They are just weevils. Small beetles. They won't do you any harm, even though they may gross you out. Sailors had to eat them when their hard tack became infested. They will also dine happily on pasta. They can chew through plastic bags.

As others say - freezing for a few days gets rid of the problem. The eggs are almost always present in meal - especially 'organic' stuff. It's just a tiny bit of protein. No different to fruit fly eggs in fruit.

If your corn was in a cupboard with rice / meal / flour / cereal / pasta they can also become infested. Check out the other packets.

Answer

If you opened a fresh bag of cornmeal from the store & they were in there, you brought them home...I bought a 10 lb. bag of flour from Sam's Club a few years ago and dang if they weren't in there. I was PO'd because I live in NC & Sam's is in VA so I just threw my money down the drain. I spoke to the my restaurant supplier about this once and he said the bugs are beetles & get in there from the warehouse storage. One never knows how long these things sit in a warehouse before it gets to your kitchen!

But if, however, you'd opened a bag and used it with no problem and then after awhile you found bugs in there, these are mealy bugs that can come from storing your product in a humid environment. They can get into flour, cornmeal, oatmeal, pasta, rice (NOTICE, GRAINS?). I keep those things in my freezer or frig now...Thank God I have a deep freezer....

Oh, by the way, I tried storing these things in large cans with tight fitting lids, but same problem....

Answer

Okay, I just ate a ton of bugs today, from a newly opened can of McCann's oats. I hadn't had McCann's before, so I thought they were pieces of hull when I saw them cooked. I don't know how I didn't notice the many many bugs teeming in the can when I open it. I'm pretty disgusted. At least I just opened the can today and it is steel, so the rest of my kitchen probably won't be infected.

I can't begin to guess how many bugs I ate. I know they won't hurt me, but I'm kind of grossed out by this.

Answer

Spontaneous generation. You've just proved how all life got started on our planet!

Answer

They're grain weevils. I had them years ago in my pantry and didn't notice until everything became infested, they'd hatched, and now I had them flying everywhere. I had to throw out everything in my pantry that wasn't sealed. It happens quite rapidly, actually, and I had to take everything out and use whatever was recommended (can't remember) to clean every square inch of my pantry before replacing things otherwise there's a chance they'll just come back.
I'd belonged to a co-op and used to purchase flour and grains in bulk and it's where they came from originally. The co-op actually admitted they'd been having problems with other customers complaining about the same thing.
I don't buy in bulk any longer.

Answer

In my opened bags of flour and cornmeal I place 3 or 4 bay leaves and seal the bags tightly by folding over the open side several times and clipping tightly. No problem.... no bugs. Have done this for years.

Answer

WOW, maybe it's a weevil? or flour beetle or something that eats corn. 

I'm currently storing my kitchen grains and stuff in a plastic drawer placed on a table, and the other day while cleaning out I noticed a very tiny white/clear catterpillar like worm on the bottom of the drawer, didn't see them in any of the grains though. 
I had bought some mulberries where I discovered huge white worm things living inside, however I kept it seperate until I could figure out what to do with it. The other day I found so many more in there that i decided to toss it (closed and sealed bag) so I did and two days later I found these caterpillar things on the FLOOR crawling around about 1-3 feet away from the garbage, first I found one then two more and it shocked me to death. It means they got out of their sealed bag and somehow crawled out of all the garbage and onto the floor, SHOCKING but I know now not to under estimate bugs.

Answer

I just bought a new package from a different mfg. I think this one is Bob's Red Mill. It has an expiration date good until 3/11. Hope I use it up by then...

Answer

Mealy moths love sugar and whole grains so Bulk buying at Whole Foods is one source for the little buggers. To avoid them, keep your grains in the freezer. Then purchase Pantry Pest at the hardware store. You get two traps in one box. Put one in the kitchen and the other where you might see even one small brown moth, like your closet. Although it may be denied by conservationists, they do eat wool and are not bothered by moth balls. Their larvae leave little webbings surrounding the ruined food or wools. The Pantry Pest is a sexual lure. Eventually you will be rid of them when they fail to reproduce. It may take more than one season and several traps to regain control of your home. Throw everything out they have touched. I lost 6 oriental rugs, all my cereals, sugars, and flour plus two stories of wall to wall wool carpet before I was done. I was told 4 days in the deep freeze was enough to kill the larvae, but I still keep all sugar and grain in my freezer.

Answer

If you can't handle little bugs in your corn meal, don't even think about consuming fish, coffee, or chocolate.

http://chowhound.chow.com/topics/694709
http://www.npr.org/templates/transcript/transcript.php?storyId=103775784

Answer

Hey folks it's your friendly organic grain producing farmer here! The bugs life cycle is tied to the actual groat or wheat berry. The are incredible little creatures. Every plant has a whole host of bugs and bacteria/fungi that associate with it in nature this is all part of the web NPI of life. There are many of these little guys that depend on grain as a part of their reproduction cycle and some of them assist in pollination. Typically they drill a hole in the kernel deposit their egg and then seal up the hole so the egg/baby cannot be affected by outside elements, water, mold etc. Pretty brillant... the baby hatches (could be a year later) and immediately begins to feast on the interior of the kernel or on the flour/grain around it. The egg is very tiny and can make it through the milling process and sometimes freezing as well but I can guarantee that if you keep your grain in the freezer you will have no problems with these smart little guys because they will not hatch. Additionally the adults can be in your home and can sniff out the grains drill through a bag and lay eggs in it. No amount of Chemicals, Pesticides or such can stop them all and as we like our water and food to be devoid of such things I urge you to not worry to much about it. You might enjoy learning about them and their life cycle i know i did! P.S. You can order miller moth traps and traps for weevils. 

Cheers
Andy

Answer

It all began with little tiny bugs appearing all over the house maybe 3 months ago. They would be on the walls, the window sill, on the kitchen curtain. I thought it was global warming right! I was sure wrong, it took me a little while to figure out they were beetles as they are very small. Plus they have another talent besides eating and reproducing like crazed rabbits hi on Viagra. The suckers can fly, or mimic flying that's what threw me. One sunny day there was like 10 of them on the kitchen curtain, that's when it hit me, they have to be coming from the kitchen? Low and behold inside the pantry was a bag of loose corn kernels. Just right on the bottom of the pantry which is why we didn't notice it before. Must have been hundreds of them in the clear plastic bag! Finally after searching all over the house, they were in front of my face all along. Got rid of the corn no more problem. Many markets sell loose grains and whole bugs and pieces of bugs are always present. A few is not an issue hundreds of them are, unless of course their what's for dinner!

Answer

If you buy corn meal pouring in a cake pan or something and bake it in a hot oven for a few minutes. That will kill the eggs, and they won't hatch.

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Little Bugs in Corn Meal Where Did they Come From?

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