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Moths

  • Scientific Name: Lepidoptera
  • Nicknames: None
  • Length: Various Lengths
  • Color: Black, Brown, White, Grey with some Secondary Brighter colors
  • Aggressive? No
  • Do They Bite? No
  • Poisonous/Venomous? No
  • Disease Carrying? No
  • Invasive Species? Some

The Moth

Indian meal moths are the most common of these so-called "pantry pests." As adult moths they are harmless, other than to your sensibilities as a good housekeeper and parent. But the larvae are the culprits when it comes to eating and contaminating stored foods in the cupboard.

Adult Indian meal moths are about one half-inch in length and have distinctive bi-colored wings. The part of the wing closer to the head is tan or a light gray, while the other section is a darker brown or copper color. The adult moths only live for about a week, long enough to mate and for female moths to lay eggs on food items. In a few days, whitish caterpillars with brown heads hatch and may feed in your cupboard for several weeks or months, depending on the temperature. When they are ready to pupate, the caterpillars will often wander away from the foodstuff to spin a loose cocoon in some corner where they may spend up to several weeks before emerging as adult moths. In warm weather, the entire life cycle takes six to eight weeks, but it can take up to six months under cooler conditions.

How Do We Remove Them?

Once you give McMahon Exterminating a call in Evansville, Indiana we will bring a trained technician out to discover the issue and infestation, identify and develop a unique solution to your problem as every home and infestation is unique as some might require different or more intensive methods depending on the severity and location.

It is important to remember when dealing with large infestations near the home that one simple treatment will most likely not solve the issue in a lot of cases, instead we will need to asses and monitor the situation as it evolves, because ants might find newer entry points or might be resilient depending on the type of ant we are dealing. With McMahon's C.A.N. initiative and our three easy steps — Canvas the area, Act on those results, and Negate re-entry for the pest.