Mothtrocities

Last week the duck and I made an emergency trip to Ikea – and this time we didn’t even get lost before we got there. We were on a mission: getting our hands on some floral scented candles and, most importantly, arming ourselves with powerful tools to deal with our most recent inadvertent adventure in Berlin: pantry moths! A few months back we saw the occasional pantry moth in the kitchen. I checked all open food bags but couldn’t find any signs of an attack. So I told myself that they must have just flown in through the open kitchen window. I was wrong. Early last week our house mate found a few moths in her food drawer and then went through all of her stored groceries. A plastic box that was supposed to be filled with only chia seeds was now also filled with extensive webbing and lots of larvae. She then started finding baby moths in other food packages, as well, while I sat at a safe distance watching in disgust (people tell me all the time that I am a very supportive friend). That night I dreamed about finding larvae in my flour. So, the next morning, I jumped out of the bed and searched the duck and my food again. Eventually our house mate did find some suspicious clumps in our food and, without looking, I just threw away everything that she said looked shady. After that I spent many hours researching moth infestations online and my whole world view was shattered! Even though I’ve had pantry moths before, I always assumed that they must have come in through the windows or doors. NO! Most of the time you personally invite pantry moths into your home by buying infested food at the grocery store! We’re never safe (unless we live from salt and coffee beans)! Even jars with screw tops are no serious obstacles! My skin has been crawling with ghost larvae ever since I made that discovery. So, I froze all of the duck and my dry food, cleaned out our food shelf and blow dried it (much to the amusement of our house mate), messaged our favorite Ikea buddy about an urgent Ikea outing and bought a few expensive (well, for the duck and my standards, anyway) storage jars. I didn’t buy enough. Who would have thought that the duck and my 2nd New Year’s Resolution would turn out to be so harmful? We might have to throw our frugality out of the window in dealing with this particular problem if we ever want to feel safe again! Until then the duck and I shall be visited by ghost moths and larvae in all our dreams 😥