Moth plague, larvae overrun city home
A Hamilton woman clearly recalls the moment her daughter came running into the lounge yelling ‘‘a bug has gone into my ear and I can hear it fluttering.’’
Little did Eden Moray know, her home would be crawling with moths and larvae one year later.
Moray moved into her Ka¯ inga Ora home in October 2019, and while living conditions haven’t always been easy, Moray never expected her home would be plagued by Indian meal moths.
‘‘We’ve had these bugs since day one of moving here, but I just thought they were normal bugs, so I didn’t show them too much attention,’’ Moray told
Once she identified the insect, it was too late, infestation had taken over.
Getting on top of the problem as soon as possible is key, according to an expert exterminator.
SWAT Pest Control owner Shane Wickham said good quality, sealed containers, a steady rotation of food and a clean home is paramount to keeping the bugs at bay.
‘‘It happens to everybody and anyone, it’s not a poverty thing, it can affect us all,’’ Wickham said.
While Wickham agreed it’s good to do a bit of DIY, an interior, exterior treatment once a year will help keep creepy crawlies outside.
His team gets called out up to five times a year for Indian meal moth eradication.
‘‘It’s a small part of the business, but it can have a huge cost on the homeowners with the replacement of food,’’ Wickham said.
Moray’s own pantry was crawling in moths and larvae.
‘‘I didn’t realise it was an
Indian moth when it went into my daughter’s ear and until our pantry was riddled in them,’’ she said.
‘‘All of a sudden they were crawling out of everything.
‘‘I even had them coming out of the carpet.’’
Moray had to throw out ‘‘every inch of food’’, including her food in air-tight containers.
Indian meal moths feed on plants, grains and other human food products and the larvae can be found in a wide range of dry foodstuffs of vegetable origin, such as cereal, bread, pasta, rice, flour, spices and nuts.
Some larvae have the ability to bite through plastic and cardboard so even sealed containers may be infested.
Adult Indian meal moths can grow up to 10mm in length with a 20mm wingspan. A single female can lay up to 400 eggs after mating.
Moray said new moths come every day from the swamp-like grass that wraps around the home and it’s having an impact on her life.
‘‘We can’t have food here, and if I open the windows more moths will fly in.’’
Moray hasn’t used a DIY bug bomb, as she wasn’t sure what to use.
She wasn’t the first to have the problem. Most recently, Lee Gunn of Freemans Bay in Auckland found ‘‘maggots’’ had eaten their way out of a packet of SunRice brown rice and inundated her pantry.
Auckland woman Salima Ali had the same problem with the same brand of rice in 2020.
Between April 2018 and April 2019, the Ministry for Primary Industries received 42 reports of pests inside stored products. They were not considered a biosecurity risk.
Entomology Team Manager, Biosecurity New Zealand Dr Alan Flynn said the moths are spread through trade and commerce and are well established in New Zealand.
Flynn said if an infestation is found, place it in the freezer which will kill all life stages, then either use it as usual or discard it.
‘‘With serious infestations, seek the advice of a registered pest control operator,’’ Flynn said.
He also urged people to inspect products for webbing and small holes before purchasing.