gladys m hayward <ghayward@illuminet.net> wrote:
>i have a flour problem.. that rears its ugly head every so often.
>i will buy brand new sack of flour... i keep all my flour, including
>my specialty flours, in tupper ware air tight sealed cannisters.. and
>i am careful to put the cannisters thru the diswasher each time i
>refill them... now... flour will look just fine; then... few days
>later... i open it... and i find these darned ugly looking little
>brownish whitish worms ... they sorta a little bigger than a rice
>kernel... ughh....
First of all, they're not worms, they're insects, or more
specifically, the larvae of some kind of insect. After they eat
enough they will pupate and hatch out into cute or ugly insects that
will mate and lay more eggs in your flour. There's nothing wrong with
using air-tight contains, they will keep your other grains from
getting infested. The problem is, you're buying flour that's already
infested with the creatures -- most likely they eggs of the creatures,
which then hatch into the hungry little larvae you see.
Advise #1: Change your source of supply. The flour you buy is
probably being improperly stored before you buy it, if it gets
infested like that. I long ago stopped buying flour from open barrels
in health-food stores for that reason.
Advise #2: Kill the larvae or eggs before they hatch. A friend gave
me this advise regarding basmati rice, which is frequently infested:
when you buy it, stick it in the freezer for a week or two.
Supposedly, the creatures can't surve that much cold for that long.
You can then take it out of the freezer and as long as you keep it
tightly closed, you should have no trouble.
Good luck.
Oh yeah, I too am a mostly lurking strictly manual bread baker, but
more about that some other time.
Mark Judman <Mark_Judman@colpal.com>