Beware...it could happen to you!!

This is just a cautionary warning about buying dried beans and rice. I have always bought bulk rice, grains and dried beans to store for later. Typically I keep them in either glass jars, Tupperware style bins or double bagged in large Ziplocs.

A week before we went out of town, I purchased a 1 lb bag of dried chana dal from a local Indian market. The bag was vacuum sealed so I put the entire bag inside a large Tupperware bin and figured I'd repackage it once I broke the seal. Right before we left, we saw a few weird looking bugs but it's summer in Baltimore and we had a mild winter so we didn't worry. Instead we sealed off the spaces around the air conditioners and replaced any damaged screens. My husband also sprayed all of his houseplants with an organic pest spray. We assumed this would solve the problem.

Fast forward three weeks and two trips later..... the bugs seem to have multiplied. As we are cleaning out the kitchen looking for the source (expecting to find them coming from the walls or baseboards...) we realize that they came home from the market in my chana dal, chewed threw the plastic bag and somehow escaped the bin! After some internet searching we discovered that these things are called Rice Weevils and they are huge pains in the butt!! We were up until 2 AM last night cleaning the kitchen and the rest of the house trying to eradicate them. I am unsure if they are all gone or not. I had to do ALL of the laundry again because they had gotten into some of our clothes in a hamper (ick!!!! it just gives me the creeps remembering it), throw out any food not canned, frozen, refrigerated or sealed in airtight jars, and vacuum everything again and again. Websites that are not in the business of selling pesticides claim these steps will be enough to get rid of them.... I hope so!


Moral of the story: Always put everything in airtight glass containers that you buy in bulk. Your kitchen may be clean (mine was) but you can still bring home pests!