Expert: Mary Hughes-Cole - 2/15/2002

Question
Hello,
First let me say thank you for any advice you can offer!
My mother asked me if I would look up something on "weavils" (I dont know how to spell them), but she said they are little bugs that get in your flour, and pasta and sugar if you leave them set to long in the cupboard.
She has never had them until now, and is at a loss on how to get rid of them.
She keeps a very clean house, and does not know how she got them, or how to prevent them from coming back.
Thank you Mary,
Sincerily
Hal

Answer
Hi Hal,


Dear Hal the first thing I want to tell you is that  I keep files of the information I have given to people and use it for reference.  It helps me to be able to answer other questions more accurately and not leave anything out.  Sometimes I have to inform others of good cleaning habits etc.  Any I suggest here are not to assume that your mother does not keep a clean cub bard or house.  You have said she does and I am sure she does.  But in order to keep this information in tact I have left everything like it was when answering this same question before.  

Please know that I do take each one seriously and personably.  

Before we get involved in recommending bug killers first let us look at where the bugs really come from.  In order to do this we need to understand something about grain.  Grains are seeds.  All seeds contain a natural defense system against disease.  To be honest with you some seeds can kill you, like apple seeds.  The reason for this is that the plant has an immune system much like you do.  Your own body used bacteria and
chemicals to protect itself.  Two of these most powerful immune protectors are called T-Cells.  They are intelligent.  We are intelligent creatures and believe it or not, so are plants.  

The place to learn all you could want about plants and their defense systems is Texas A & M in College Station, Texas.  

What has all this to do with bugs in the pantry?   The truth is the bugs (Weevils) are already in the grain you purchase.  You are probably purchasing germinated grains, which mean they still contain the germ, the defense system I mentioned.  The germ is natural to the grain and is part of the immune system of the plant. All seeds contain either toxic chemicals, like arsenic or cyanide, or they contain some kind of bacteria or germ that protects its self, from disease.  As the seed lies on the ground all kinds of disease attacks this seed and the seed builds immunities to these diseases; then when the seed becomes a plant the plant is immune to the diseases that attacked the seed.  This is a natural process and when you do it to a seed the process is called curing the seed.  You place a tomato seed in some shallow water for a period of time keeping it moist, after a while it will either die or sprout, at which time you would plant the seed in the soil.  

The bugs in your pantry come from the grain its self and is usually the most natural grain you can buy most weevils do come with the grain.  They are right there in the corn meal the flour etc.  My father used to cook them right up in the corn bread or stew and we ate them for years before we learned they were there.  Did not harm us any, just the thought of them did.  These weevils often attack other grains that are not protected.  You can germinate corn meal in a glass jar that a bug can not possibly drill it' s way into and you will find them in there after a while.  What promotes the growth of these weevils is heat and time.  In order to keep grains from promoting these insects, most manufacturers have degerminiated the grains.  Most health connoisseurs believe we need to eat the natural germinated grains. It is really hard to get them out of the grains once they are in there that is why some manufactures go so far as to use bleach to kill the germ so that people do not have to deal with these problems.  It was at this point in history that man began having heart attacks.  I have never had arthritis or heart trouble and have always eaten Gold Metal Unbleached Flour for what cooking I did.  I also do not eat other bleached goods, such as sugar.  The bleach they use to bleach these grains is the same bleach that they use to ingest cancer into rats.


After having so much experience with grains and this problem as a child, I vowed to keep all my grains in the refrigerator, which I do.  I keep all my seasonings in the refrigerator; it really gets crowded in there and my husband thinks I am some kind of genius because I can put almost anything I need in there even though it looks full.  The fuller refrigerator actually keeps a much more constant temperature, keeps everything much colder and much less chance of freezing.  I regulate the temperature often to maintain exactly what it takes to keep everything at a temperature just above freezing.  

You can even freeze flour and some other dryer grains.  The only problem is that you may destroy them in doing so.  So, put the grains in a white flour sack like Gold Metal comes in and then put that sack into a Zip Lock Freezer Bag and put the bag into the refrigerator.  As you use the flour keep a rubber band on the sack to keep it closed and replace into the Zip Lock Bag every time you have taken out what you need. Do not leave out any longer than it takes to take out what you need.  Do all the other grains this way.  If you have multiple grains and a lot of them, then get another refrigerator, a big one, that will hold all the things you put up like jars of pickles, bags of flour, seasonings.  Keep all the fresh produce in the other one.  

One other alternative would be to use a large cooler for a pantry instead of a dry hot one.  But even so if the germ is there it will eventually develop.  But still the cooler temperature will keep seasonings and grains at their best.  I can truly say that my seasonings keep up to a year safely, without any worry.

You should have only bottles of unopened syrup in the pantry and canned goods unopened.  No bags of anything and nothing opened, like crackers, or potatoes chips nothing in the way of cereal, sugar or otherwise.  Sugar should be stored just like the flour. All cereals you should be keeping the same.  There should be, nothing, that, a bug could get into in the pantry bugs do not eat through glass.  All my teas and seasonings are in glass preferably Kerr or Mason Jars.

Now you do not need to exterminate the pantry.  If you feel the need to do something then get some Boric Acid powder and with a teaspoon run a line around the bottom of the floor and all of the shelves.  This will eliminate any roaches and ants that feel a need to investigate your home.  I also use borax (this is the natural laundry booster) in the bottom of the refrigerator under the chiller drawer and underneath the stove and the refrigerator itself, and all other appliances that sit on the floor.  For hundreds of years people have used baking soda.  Soda kills bacteria and parasites; it does not just absorb orders.  Many people use it for cleaning everything in the house.  Borax kills bacteria and parasites too; Borax can be safely used to clean everything in the house, your body and food.  It only takes a teaspoon per sink of water.  

Use the boric acid sparingly in tiny little lines along the floors and baseboards.  You can also place it along the back of the counters, that little ledge just to the top of the splashboard it works and is not a condiment.  You can even use it around exposed meat.  It will pass a health inspection, I never have any kind of bugs and this is what I do.  Of course, I clean my floor everyday and do not have wood floors.  Wood can harbor disease.  

Hope this helps you with your weevil problem and one other thing did you know that when they lay a foundation of a house they first put under it Borax.  And when those exterminators come out and drill holes in the ground for termites, that they fill those holes with Borax.

The Following is a list of books I often recommend because we have learned that out of thousands of books these are necessary for safe living.  

Please do your best to find them.  

The one by Hulda Clark tell all about Borax and how to rid your life of chemicals that kill, and are found right under your noses.  For instance not until recently did anyone know that espersol alcohol was deadly.  It has been used for hundreds of years for everything.  It was once called rubbing alcohol and gobs of it was rubbed on people's bodies and it was put literally in every product.  Another one of the deadly products is Sodium Lural Sulfate.  

The book called, Eat Well For Optimum Health, by Dr Andrew Weil, is the best book I know about on how to learn about foods and which kinds of oils and foods contribute to good health.  You will find this book very helpful and informative.  As a researcher, I have researched thousands of books and you can take my work for it, this man knows what he is talking about.  We hear and see many books but not all of them really know the truth.  Opinion is what many are made from and not much real fact, test, or knowledge.  His book is world-renowned and the best of its kind.  

Another book concerning health and food that has saved thousands upon thousands of lives not only here but also worldwide is, The Cure For All Cancers, by Hulda Clark.  She also wrote, The Cure For All Diseases, The Cure For HIV And Aids, as well as her latest book, The Cure For All Advanced Cancers.

Her book saved my life from deadly skin cancer in 1996, after I contracted a deadly parasite from swimming in a lake.  



Hulda  Clark, is a Naturopathic Doctor and a Scientist.  She has written several books where she explains in detail how to cook and care for yourself pertaining to disease.  She has a clinic in Tijuana, Mexico where they cure thousands of people of cancer and other diseases every day.  You might want to get one of these books, they are: The Cure For All Diseases, The Cure For All Cancers, The Cure For HIV And Aids, The Cure For All Advanced Cancers.  

Her research is well in advance of most research today, and I do have many books that back up everything she has said as the truth.  One is written by Upjohn and is called Pathoparasitology.  This book shows full color slides of horrible parasites.  These parasites are the cause of all diseases according to many books, and this book.  This book and many others I have support everything she says.  

She explains in her books how to clean your house of all chemicals that damage the immune system, and how to build a zapper that will rid your body every day of all viruses, bacteria, and parasites.  Everyone should have this book and everyone who does exactly what she advises will keep themselves and their family free of diseases, including all the deadly ones.  Hope you find this book just as valuable as everyone else

Here is the web site you will want to research, http://www.pueblo.gsa.gov/
When you get there, it is the-
Federal Consumer Information Center Pueblo Colorado,
When you get there, click on
Food, When you get there, click on-

Can Your Kitchen pass the Food Safety Test?  
1998 528GG Free
That web site is www.fda.gov/
The phone number for the about Center is 1-888 INFO-FDA (1-888-463-6332)
When you get there, click on Food

U.S Food and Drug Administration
5600 Fishers Lane, Rockville
MD 2085 7-0001
When you get there, click on Food

Food borne Illness, Nutrition, Dietary Supplements…
Program Areas
Food Additives and Pre-market Approval
www.FoodSafety.gov
Gateway to Government Food Safety Information
When you get there, click on
Food
When you get there, click on
Food Additives and Pre-Market Approval
When you get there, it is
EAFUS A FOOD ADDITIVE DATA BASE
US Food and Drug Administration
Center for Food Safety and Applied Nutrition

Good Luck. Mary Hughes-Cole