Bug free pantry?

[CurtisG]

Once again, little moths are flying around our pantry. We transfer cereals, oats, beans, rice, into big glass jars or snap on lid plastic containers and yet we still get infestations.
I think this topic has been covered but what do you do for storing the short term/every day pantry items?
Would oxygen absorber packets keep bugs from growing in the cheerios?

[phylm]

Simplest way to get rid of them, while we still have electricity, is to freeze dry food, cluding cereal, flour and ready-mixes for a few days. That kills any nits that are hidden in the food.

[Noahs ARK]

Yep - freezer works every time!

[iggy]

Once they are out of the food you have now, don't feed them again by putting new boxes of food in there.

Vacuum seal all boxed & bagged food. If the bag & box is paper, those bugs will eat it and thrive.

I tried putting boxes of Rice a Roni, mac & cheese, etc. in plastic boxes- but those boxes do not seal tight enough to keep the insects out. When I vacuum sealed them, they were prevented from gaining access to them. The vacuum sealed boxes won't sit on a shelf, so it is necessary to store in the plastic boxes/totes.

I even vacuum seal 5 pound bags of sugar and bags of salt. They are all packaged in paper- I am not going to feed the bugs!

[CurtisG]

@Noah & phlym, do you have any moisture or condensation getting the foods soggy when you put them back into the pantry?
@Iggy, do you re-vacseal cereals or baking items that you might get into every few days or weeks?
I am suspecting that many of the items getting buggy are simply going too long before being used up. One item that got ruined was some steel cut oats that my wife had removed from the original packing and put into a glass jar with a gasketed lid.

[iggy]

@Noah & phlym, do you have any moisture or condensation getting the foods soggy when you put them back into the pantry?
@Iggy, do you re-vacseal cereals or baking items that you might get into every few days or weeks?
I am suspecting that many of the items getting buggy are simply going too long before being used up. One item that got ruined was some steel cut oats that my wife had removed from the original packing and put into a glass jar with a gasketed lid.

I have a FoodSaver canister that I put cereal in that we don't eat often.I package oats into single serving vacuum seal bags. The sugar canister is Tupperware. As is the flour canister. I only grind wheat when I need it. Right now I have a surplus of 100% Whole Grain flour. It is in the Tupperware.

Every thing that I purchase in large bulk amount, I vacuum seal into either single serve or two to four serving sizes.

I also vacuum seal bath soap. I have 8/ 8 bar packages of soap. I have them vacuum sealed and in the cupboard. I also have two wicker baskets full of opened bar soap sitting in each of my bathrooms. The soap has been unwrapped and in these baskets for the last 3 years. Being unwrapped has removed the moisture from them- thus they last 2 to 3 times longer in the shower. Why I vacuum seal the unopened soaps is to keep the smell contained. I really don't want my bath linens to smell like a mish mash of bath soaps. When my baskets of exposed bath soaps get half empty, I will unwrap soap and fill a basket so that they will dry out.

The bugs live in your cupboards, eating the wall paper paste, the glue that is used in the fiberboard cupboards, the cardboard and paper the food is packaged in. They go after the food when it is available as it is their preferred meal.