In the winter this year, still on the old forum, someone wrote a very insightful conclusion, that because of a very warm winter, it’s probable that we will get food moths in our kitchens. That’s our case:
We removed all the contaminated food once, but still these buggers came back.
Do you have any solid and sure solution?
Put the traps in your cupboards.
Check your cupboards for any holes, nooks and crannies where they may lay their eggs and block them up. They particularly like to lay eggs in the little holes where you put the pegs for the shelf position.
We’ve had them for a few years - control them with wasps Habrobracon hebetor but they are not gone yet.
We will be moving and won’t be taking any perishables along.
I’ve given up. Although, I’m OCD about closing packages, with the kids just leaving open food everywhere it is a losing battle.
Anything new you buy should be double-sealed in plastic bags. Anything you do have should be in clear plastic or glass containers so you can see if any of them have the very thin cocoon threads or larvae in them. (The larvae can remain dormant for many months).
As others have said, they like to lay their eggs in tiny holes and crevices so you should periodically insert a cotton wool bud soaked in alcohol or vinegar into those cupboard shelf holes and other places.
We had them and got rid of them. I’m pretty sure they came in a bag of bird seed as that was ground zero.
And if you live in an apartment and your neighbour(s) have them, you’ll be fighting a battle in vain if they don’t try and get rid of them too.
Goodness, no. If you find a viable long-term solution please update this thread.
Last time I got rid of everything that was in an “infested” cupboard, disinfected it multiple! times, tried to use jars and other airtight containers or recipients for rice, flour, pretty much everything and I have just noticed a couple of them in the living room area and couldn’t detect the source.
OH thinks we’re bring them home with the rice etc we buy from Coop etc.
I’ve heard people use wasps with good results. You basically buy these tiny strips with wasps and put them in the cupboards and they go lay their eggs in the moth eggs which then die.
Store everything in airtight containers (bags won’t do, too thin), preferably see-through so you can identify infected items easily. This alone should at least massively reduce the problem over time because you’ll remove problematic items one by one while you prevent fresh spreading.
Typical food packaging like thin plastic and paper bags is no good, moths can bite through them. Pet stuff can be problematic as well, food but also (as a vector) hay and straw etc.
Consider freezing incoming stuff that’s not in a good enough container, especially stuff imported from areas with less strict standards. Apparently one week at -18°C kills the moths regardless of development stage.
I didn’t think of this tbh. After an infestation with these moths I’m worried when I see even a little single one as they tend to multiply very, very fast. I have seen two recently and checked every cupboard, every drawer and…nothing. I really hope they were some…visitors. 
I’m not sure if I dare post this on here. Murphey’s Law and all that.
We once lived in a village which had a flour mill. I made all my own bread and fetched flour in 8kg sacks. Various sorts of flour including wholemeal.
There was a stream behind the house and a farm nearby so small UFOs flying around the flat were not unusual.
One find day wanting to make a batch of bread, I fetched a bag of wholemeal flour from the cupboard in the corridor. It was literally full of maggots and on peering to the back of the cupboard I realised they were having a mass meeting in there. I threw that bagful out - and sieved the rest of the 26 kilos. Fortunately nothing visible was found and invisible bits are not dangerous to health! I put the sieved flour into plastic bags in an area of the flat well away from there. I cleaned out the cupboard completely including the little holes for the shelf supports which is where the cocoons are often to be found. (I don’t think moths lay their eggs somewhere devoid of a food source). I dumped other stuff which had been stored on other shelves.
Each morning I went round the flat with a normal fly swatter and killed anything with two wings. Deaths decreasing in number over the next fortnight or so.
All clear. These were probably flour moths and not Indian maize moths but I think the life cycle is similar.
Since then, I have occasionally had maggots in stuff. The better the quality and the more ‘natural’ the form, the better the moths seem to like to lay their eggs there and there is no way of telling how much ‘extra’ we bring home from the shops with us. A long as the stuff is kept cool, any eggs may remain ‘dormant’ and unseen. I keep much of my ‘dry’ food in transparent plastic containers, mostly at eye level, and shake them a little as I take other things out of the cupboard. If anything moves in there - I check it immediately.
I’m not saying it cannot happen to me again, but I’m still quick on the draw with a fly swatter.
Are these even dangerous, or should we just consider it bonus protein?
They’re just bonus protein, they won’t do you any harm.
They’re disgusting. Eww.
When they are in the oats and you make porridge, you wouldn’t even notice. 
I stayed for a couple of weeks at a cheap hotel in India once.
Every morning over breakfast, a couple of ladies would sit on the floor and sieve the mouse dropping out of the bags of rice before cooking.
The rice always had a (not so slight) taste of animal urine.
Nothing a strong curry sauce can’t mask 
For dry goods like rice, cous cous, etc., I just give them a spin in the microwave on full whack for a minute as a precaution to fry any eggs or lava that might be in there. Had them once, almost lost my mind, developed the skills of a forensic scientist 
over food storage and never had them again.
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