One of our kitchen cupboards is infested with these bugs - thousands of them! At first we thought they were sugar ants, but smaller - they are no more than 1mm long. They mostly lie around looking dead, but are capable of moving quite fast. There is no sign of any nest and they don't like sugar or ant-bait. They do like flour.

We emptied the cupboard, leaned it out, sprayed all joints, cracks, crevices and surfaces with Chaindrite and Permedan. We let it dry, put everything back that was not contaminated/infested (we had to throw out several containers of flour). Within two hours they were back! Repeated the process, still they are coming back.

Any ideas short of a nuclear bomb?

I think it could be Flour Weevils, Google Flour Weevils - images, and have a look there, you may have to store flour and other baking ingredients separately & securely. Hope that helps. 

Edited April 6, 20197 yr by Golden Triangle

23 minutes ago, Golden Triangle said:

I think it could be Flour Weevils, Google Flour Weevils - images, and have a look there, you may have to store flour and other baking ingredients separately & securely. Hope that helps. 

Thank you for that, the nearest match I can find in appearance is booklice. We have had weevils in rice and flour before, bigger, much harder carapace, and darker.

Offer them to the locals for FREE !

2 minutes ago, Grusa said:

Thank you for that, the nearest match I can find in appearance is booklice. We have had weevils in rice and flour before, bigger, much harder carapace, and darker.

I agree with what you say but the ones in your pictures could be juveniles ? Many years ago I found similar in a pack of French Toast thingys, I sent them back to the manufacturer who wrote us a nice letter telling us what they were and a very nice hamper, I just wish I had found them before I had eaten half the pack ????

 

Kind of looks like a termite to me.

3 hours ago, Grusa said:

sprayed all joints, cracks, crevices and surfaces with Chaindrite and Permedan. We let it dry,

You can get more potent mixer type bug killer, comes in a small bottle and a spray bottle is used. 

Local people farmers know, take care though mask, gloves, glasses, throw away overalls job.

5 hours ago, Gecko123 said:

Kind of looks like a termite to me.

Thank you for that, but I know termites, intimately. Bigger, voracious, and leave mud tunnels. Doesn't fit the profile.

6 hours ago, Liverpudlian said:

Offer them to the locals for FREE !

There is no such thing as a free lunch......

 

As there would seem to be several  million to the kg, a 50g packet is above the maximum crop yield. Exactly how much do you think I can sell them for, and do you have a recipe for cooking them?

Also, I have no work permit.....

 

Edited April 6, 20197 yr by Grusa

If you have a large freezer, store your flour in plastic containers in the freezer. Flour comes to no harm and stays bug free. 

May be your flour is contaminated when you buy it and the bugs develop in your cupboard? Buy from a different source and see what happens.

29 minutes ago, Letseng said:

If you have a large freezer, store your flour in plastic containers in the freezer. Flour comes to no harm and stays bug free. 

May be your flour is contaminated when you buy it and the bugs develop in your cupboard? Buy from a different source and see what happens.

Already do that.

I have come to the conclusion that they actually live and breed in the "Weetabix" chipboard cupboard carcase, and exit into the cupboard at the joints. The cupboards have had a couple of good soakings from cracked blue pipework in the ceiling above, and so are "blown" at the edges of the panels. A good soaking with Chaindrite does seem to be working, slowly.

 

Thank you everyone for your helpful replies.

Edited April 8, 20197 yr by Grusa
Proofreading!

Hello,

maybe larvae of TRIBOLIUM CASTANEUM or CONFUSUM

On 4/6/2019 at 12:12 PM, Golden Triangle said:

I agree with what you say but the ones in your pictures could be juveniles ? Many years ago I found similar in a pack of French Toast thingys, I sent them back to the manufacturer who wrote us a nice letter telling us what they were and a very nice hamper, I just wish I had found them before I had eaten half the pack ????

 

Know what you mean....

 

Having very bad eyesight, I cooked a batch of rice thinking the 'dark bits' were wild rice.  It was only a few months later (and having bought spectacles in the meantime) that I realised the 'dark bits' were insects......

 

It took me quite a long time to find this funny!

Weevils will do you no harm. Protein source, unless they covered in your poisons.

https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/21864/questions-about-insects-eating-flour-and-living-in-the-cracks-of-a-wooden-cuttin

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Unidentified_german_insect_03.jpg

 

https://www.entomology.co.in/2018/04/psocoptera.html

 

Not only in Thailand, 

they are termites, i had them in a cement wall and thought they only live in wood, but bullshit. they are termites. i sprayed them with bygon but the red can  then caulk the cracks everywhere you see them coming in

1 hour ago, xtrnuno41 said:

https://biology.stackexchange.com/questions/21864/questions-about-insects-eating-flour-and-living-in-the-cracks-of-a-wooden-cuttin

 

https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Unidentified_german_insect_03.jpg

 

https://www.entomology.co.in/2018/04/psocoptera.html

 

Not only in Thailand, 

Excellent, thank you for that. So, they are definitely  psocids (booklice) and live on moulds and mildew.

Chaindrite is killing them, soaked into the chipboard edges.

1 hour ago, Grusa said:

Excellent, thank you for that. So, they are definitely  psocids (booklice) and live on moulds and mildew.

Chaindrite is killing them, soaked into the chipboard edges.

Yeah, Chaindrite is potent stuff. Be careful not to breath the fumes, though

6 hours ago, dick dasterdly said:

Know what you mean....

 

Having very bad eyesight, I cooked a batch of rice thinking the 'dark bits' were wild rice.  It was only a few months later (and having bought spectacles in the meantime) that I realised the 'dark bits' were insects......

 

It took me quite a long time to find this funny!

 

lol I gave up worrying years ago and now just eat them.

 

 

10 hours ago, sirocco said:

Hello,

maybe larvae of TRIBOLIUM CASTANEUM or CONFUSUM

Ah .....the larval form of the Barstoolium Whinesome. Apparently Pattaya is infested at the moment but I hear the Department of  Public Health has engaged the Immigration Police to try and sort the problem out. With some success so I've been told. 

 

Apparently there are widespread warnings of a potential outbreak across SEA particularly Vietnam, Cambodia and the Philippines. 

Laos seems to be in the clear so far as the climate is not so conducive to their breeding cycle. 

20 hours ago, dick dasterdly said:

Know what you mean....

 

Having very bad eyesight, I cooked a batch of rice thinking the 'dark bits' were wild rice.  It was only a few months later (and having bought spectacles in the meantime) that I realised the 'dark bits' were insects......

 

It took me quite a long time to find this funny!

Not a problem if cooked. I suspect that there are many consuming black ants on a regular basis.

17 hours ago, RJRS1301 said:

Weevils will do you no harm. Protein source, unless they covered in your poisons.

 

Yes, not as bad as termites. Definitely the lesser of two weevils.