Weevils in dried pasta, oh the horror

[VocalNeal]

15 hours ago, Jingthing said:

Recently, my favorite brand and variety of not at all cheap imported Italian pasta bought at a well known and unnamed high end grocery store has shown up with WEEVILS. twice.

 

Easy just chose the lesser of the two weevils. 

[suzannegoh]

I had two pet weevils but one of them died.  He was the lesser of two weevils.

[owenm]

I buy an Italian fussilli spiral pasta, 500gms from Big C.. Once I discovered a few weevils once I got home. I noticed with the celo type packaging that there was a slight tare in the packaging. A great entry point to get in.. I still continue to use this same brand but check that the packaging is air tight, shake it to see if anything appears inside and no problems since.. If it doesn't appear to be airtight then you'll most likely find a slight tare in the celo packaging.. 

 

I've also bought a box of Australian rigatoni pasta from Tops which isn't sealed except to the box and poly window.. Also a nice surprise on opening the box.. No sealed celo bag inside and a family or two of weevils.. 

[Captain 776]

Only ever found in rice but not ever in pasta...........but just eat em, it’s good protein, no different than the bugs the street vendors sell.......isn’t it?

[korkenzieher]

Weevils - had them occasionally in rice and pasta. First sign of once and the lot goes out - or gets given to a local, who seems both pleased to receive the gift, and surprised that I find the little black things a problem. I've seen undamaged packages rampant with them so I'm not sure if there is a processing issue or a storage issue. Gifts (to me) of local rice seem alive with any kind of bug if it isn't finished in 3 months, so these days I just politely refuse saying I already bought more than I need to use.

[Dek Somboon]

Insects are very rich in protein and great to lose weight.

[jgarbo]

18 hours ago, Crossy said:

Never found beasties in pasta, rice certainly.

 

They float when you wash it, I would be washing the pasta too.

 

They're unlikely to cause you any issues even if you eat them (extra protein).

Free protein, what's the problem?

[rickudon]

I have on at least 3 occasions seen weevils/beetles in rice at Tesco in clear bags - not a few, hundreds clearly visible in the bag without even picking it up, Usually all the bags of that brand where the same. Once it was while a worker cheerfully filled a shelf with these new, infested bags, obvious to anyone not blind, but they couldn't care less. Never seen any in the big white sacks ....... Not seen any in Pasta - i buy in Makro, maybe better pest control, just see a rat or two. 

[Jingthing]

I am wondering if you did see the bugs in a product in one of the higher end groceries and you pointed it out would they even bother to remove the products? 

[marcusarelus]

2 minutes ago, Jingthing said:

I am wondering if you did see the bugs in a product in one of the higher end groceries and you pointed it out would they even bother to remove the products? 

Another typical Thai bash by rumor and supposition or do you have some way of factually determining the correct answer. 

[xylophone]

I have found a few weevils in various packets of pasta that I've purchased here over time, but provided the infestation is not too great, I just pull the pasta out, wipe it down and put it in another container, ready to use another day.

 

Interestingly enough I never found weevils in pasta etc in my home country, but when I went to work in Nigeria, it was a different story altogether.

 

Early on in the piece I was working on-shore and went to the "canteen", which was no more than a wooden and tin shack with a few big fans in it, with someone doing some cooking at the far end and I sat down with a couple of guys and started to tear open my small bread roll and as I did so I noticed a few rather large insects baked into it (not the small weevils we see here but something much larger) and I commented on the fact that I was not going to eat that crap with those insects in it.

 

To which a guy replied, "well you'd better get used to it because the bloody things are in everything we eat here, so here's a tip, squash the bread roll until it's flat, then eat it and when you've taken a bite out of it, turn it away from you, that way you won't have to see what you are eating, otherwise you'll bloody starve".

 

Got used to eating and living with creepy crawlies and greeblies after a couple of stints in Libya and one in Nigeria, so no problems now!
 

[wgdanson]

On 5/8/2019 at 6:01 PM, Jingthing said:

No doubt but if my restaurant food was crawling with live bugs I would send it back, yes?

The cooking kills them.

[Jingthing]

The cooking kills them.

Dead bugs then.

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[wgdanson]

Just now, Jingthing said:

Dead bugs then.

Sent from my Lenovo A7020a48 using Thailand Forum - Thaivisa mobile app
 

You've probably had worse things in your mouth!    LOL

[OneEyedPie]

2 minutes ago, wgdanson said:

You've probably had worse things in your mouth!    LOL

Oh, Lord.  LOL.  

[sikishrory]

To get rid of them just freeze everything for a few days. There is actually no harm in storing flours and pastas in the freezer indefinately but at least 3 days ends them. I have heard from different people that freezing kills this but doesn't kill that or doesn't kill eggs or whatever but I disagree. I had a bag of rice that was crawling with them and after 3 days there was no more activity in that bag for months.

We got some Thai pest controllers out to deal with them also and learnt a bit more. The guys actually found a lot of them in the door frame of the drystore. They can chew into wood. They also told us to get rid of cardboard packaging as they lay eggs in the cardboard also.

They sprayed some chemicals around and we froze boxes and boxes of stuff in the freezer for 3 days and got rid of them.

Very difficult to kill and very difficult to eradicate.

In a home scenario though much easier. Just freeze your dry stuff for a few days and wash out any jars etc.

Also I have bought bags of rice with no visible signs of them only to have them in there a few weeks later. It seems a lot of the rices and stuff you buy here may already have eggs present

Edited May 9, 2019 by sikishrory

[StreetCowboy]

Cook the pasta.  and the weevils.  Bonus!

 

I keep buying pasta, but still no weevils.

[OneEyedPie]

Weevil wobbles and they all fall down.

[fusion58]

Solution: Get yourself a jing-jok.

 

 

I had a similar problem with invading weevils and other unsavory insects in my kitchen.

 Then, a few weeks ago, I noticed a jing-jok had taken up residence in the kitchen.

Now, thanks to my little friend, all those pests have gone MIA.

 

[Crossy]

On 5/10/2019 at 12:43 AM, OneEyedPie said:

Weevil wobbles and they all fall down.

 

For those too young ...

 

 

[Crossy]

8 minutes ago, fusion58 said:

Now, thanks to my little friend, all those pests have gone MIA.

 

And little black turds with white tips have appeared ????

 

But we are happy to have these guys and their larger tokay cousins around, just not in with the pasta ????

[OneEyedPie]

1 minute ago, Crossy said:

And little black turds with white tips have appeared ????

I have to clean my computer monitor on a daily basis.  

[fusion58]

On 5/11/2019 at 6:37 PM, Crossy said:

 

And little black turds with white tips have appeared ????

 

 

Not so much with this little fella.

 

He's either toilet trained, or he's one of those "time share" jing joks, i.e., divides his time between me and my neighbors.