Flummoxed by the pantry moth

[Ria P]

Clive's cage is in the clear. I took everything out. I've checked Rory's when i set up his bungalow. Tomorrow i'm going to take everything out of Finley's tank. He lives in the same room as Rodney.

[cloudy]

Thank goodness you know Clive's cage is okay. It really is a mystery as to where the moths could be coming from.

[Pebbles82]

Originally Posted by Ria P

I've done this already yesterday, when i saw the moth. I took everything out, put Rodney in a carrier and checked through the substrate. I chucked old, slightly smelly substrate out and spread the clean out on the floor. I vacuumed and wiped the cage before putting everything back in.

My thinking was that if there's one moth, there must be more but i couldn't find any. I kept the substrate lower than normally, without any toppings like dried herbs, flowers etc so i can keep an eye on it.

I used to dislike white substrate but can see now how practical it is. Far easier to spot anything that shouldn't be there. I'm checking through all seven cages, will stop sprinkling herbs etc and scatter feeding (half/half).

I never had the type of infestation you had first time round and only ever saw the odd pantry moths around the house.

In a way i'm glad now that i don't have huge cages. The Alaskas and Hamster Heavens are manageable and set up in a way that most things are attached to the bars so will lift off as one unit.

I would also like to know where they actually come from. Can't be hamster food because i freeze everything and can't be human food because i don't bake so have no flour, sugar etc in the house. Everything is in sealed glass jars anyway.

And where did it go when i took it out of the cage. Nothing flew away, nothing in the bucket and nothing in the cage.

There's one possibility though: i'm going mad or senile or see things that aren't there.

I'm sure you're not going mad or senile . But these situations make us feel like that. Personally I wouldn't worry about the other hamster cages - just the one you found the moth in. Whatever the source of the moth being in Rodney's cage it was specific to his cage. My experience is the hatched moths don't settle in other hamster cages - they are only in a hamster cage because they hatched out there.

You can't see anything because the eggs aren't visible to the naked eye. It's the eggs that end up hatching when it's warm enough and the right environment (usually a nice warm hamster sitting on its hoard).

When I first had them with Charlie's cage, once his cage clean was done there were no other moth issues with the cage - even though the room was full of the damn things and they were hatching out in the food cupboards! They went straight for the food cupboard. I never saw any larvae or webbing - just moths! In his house/hoard but mainly under the substrate. I had seen one moth entering and leaving the cage a couple of times and thought - hmm is that moth living in there?!

And when Pickle had them hatch out, Moo's cage was directly underneath and nothing got into his cage or hatched out there.

So it will be from something that was in Rodney's cage. It is almost always from food. That's what flummoxed me with Pickle as all the food had been frozen. The only thing I could think was I had missed freezing a treat stick and I had added a couple of toys and a hemp mat that hadn't been frozen. But - it was all in his house - where the food was. So that bothered me!

It's nearly always from pet food. All pet foods contain moth eggs. They are dormant unless it's warm enough for them to hatch out. And freezing for a week is supposed to kill the eggs.

I had never had a problem since after freezing all food - until Pickle - I still wonder if I missed freezing a food item.

What bedding did Rodney have?

[Pebbles82]

Do you freeze the herbs as well?

[Ria P]

Rodney has white Kaytee clean and cosy like the others.

Yes, i freeze the herbs as well. There's always something hamster in the freezer.

I'm sure the moth i saw was an adult one. I think that there would have been more moths in his cage if it had hatched in there.

I'm still going to empty and check all the cages as they need freshening up anyway.

Foster Robo Finley is next on my hit list and then it's our Robo Scottie tomorrow.

Clive's and Rory's cages have been checked.

Gertie's had a tidy up but i'll still remove everything. Timing is essential with that little madam.

And then there's Jack's cage. Knowing Jack, he would eat the moth.

They all get the same things! So, where do they come from?

[Pebbles82]

Frustrating isn’t it. If it was just the one you have probably caught things on time. I assumed a hamster would eat them too but Charlie didn’t. He just sat there with moths crawling out of his hoard around him! It was horrible. My mistake that first time was to ignore it and tell myself the moth going in and out of the cage was just a fluke.

The only other thing I could think of with Pickles outbreak was the bags of food had been frozen quite a long time before they were used. Maybe I mixed up a new bag with a formerly frozen bag - but I don’t think I did. I guess if you’ve had one or two in the house they could have laid eggs in a good bag that had been frozen - apparently they can do it through plastic! They can chew through plastic and leave such a tiny hole you wouldn’t see it. But you’d think something would be noticeable.

[Ria P]

Not possible either. I empty a frozen bag straight into clip top, airtight glass jars.

Emptied Finley's tank today. Found nothing but a very vocal Robo.

[Pebbles82]

Aw Finlay made his feelings known! At least they will all know they are in this situation together! And sense the others have had the upheaval too!

I got completely obsessed when we had a room full of them and would take photos for identification! Kind of did my head in a bit for a while! We moved house the following year so maybe I left some behind! Still kept finding the odd one or two. Thankfully didn't bring any with us.

[Ria P]

If i could uproot my OH i would move house too, straight back up to Scotland! He won't shift though.
It would resolve the pantry moth problem.

[Pebbles82]

You'll get rid of them. I used carpet moth traps - little triangle things on the floor. It caught a lot of them even though they weren't carpet moths mostly. The pheromone traps didn't seem to work (presumably because there were different varieties hatching out - some were Indian meal moths and some were carpet moths strangely). I tried various types of moth traps and those were the only ones that seemed to work.

It helped keep them down - it attracts them and they get stuck inside (like glue paper). Only thing is, not good having those on the floor if you have hamsters free roaming.