I discovered the problem a couple weeks ago. I'd been noticing little black bugs on the kitchen floor occasionally for a while, and had thought to myself, 'I need to clean out the pantry, because there's some spilled flour in there, and I certainly don't want these little bugs to chance upon it!' As you can probably guess, when I did get around to cleaning it out, I found that they not only HAD discovered that flour, but they were busily invading whatever was in there that wasn't protected. Thankfully, because of previous bug issues at former residences, that wasn't much. I keep most of my food safely ziplocked or binned away. There were only a few boxed foods that were unprotected, and most of those had not yet seen any bug attack. So at least what damage there was was slight! I tossed out the infested foodstuffs, wiped down the inside of the cupboard thoroughly, bagged or binned up anything that wasn't already, and cleaned all the outsides (and especially the bottoms) of the various storage containers. Then back everything went, all neat and tidy, and while I expected to still see a few little bugs here or there for a while, I didn't expect them to find much to eat, and considered the problem prettymuch solved.
Wrong again. Perhaps a week later, having kept a close eye on that lower pantry and not having seen anything, I noticed Graham, good bug-hunting kitty that he is, pointing out a little bug crawling out from under a small, free-standing antique cabinet that we have. I keep a few fresh things in there--onions, potatoes, garlic, that sort of thing--along with various jars of beans, and small baking goods like sprinkles and flavorings. Well, I opened it up right away, and discovered weevils here, weevils there, weevils, weevils everywhere. The garlic and onions were a total loss, every boxed package of pudding mixes was opened, carefully examined, tossed or sanitized, stuck in the freezer, all the sprinkle containers washed and put into bins (in case I missed something and there was still a live critter somewhere on the exterior, or worse, inside the sugars...), and then I tried to clean the cabinet itself. This was not an easy project, and I was up very late that night dealing with the problem...because every time I thought I'd killed all the bugs, another dozen would come crawling out from the many, many cracks and crannies between all the wood pieces that make up that little piece of furniture. I ended up essentially soaking the thing with antibacterial chemicals several times over, and that killed most of the critters...But all this week while I've continued to monitor it, I kept finding more bugs. And then I started seeing bugs in the lower pantry cabinet again. AAAGH.
So today I cleared everything out again, sanitized again. But this time, I got out my trusty caulk gun and spent much of my morning caulking up every single little tiny crack in those cabinets that I could find. If there were bugs hiding in those cracks, they have suffocated by now, and good riddance! If any more weevils find their way into my pantry, it won't be through the back-side or hidden hidey-hole anymore, but through the cabinet doors themselves, thankyouverymuch. :P
But for now, while I wait for the caulk to dry (and I still have 2 more shelves on that antique cabinet to caulk up), my kitchen is in total disarray, with everything from those 2 cabinets out for the world to see.
Oh the joys of bugs...I'm just grateful that THESE bugs can't fly. Unlike the last time I had an insect problem... :P
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