Help! Bugs in my grain!

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Help! About 2 months ago I bought some whole corn and some hard red wheat from a local co-op. I immediately stored it in 5 gallon buckets but have had trouble finding dry ice so I arranged to use a nitrogen tank next weekend. I went down tonight to get some corn to grind into cornmeal and was horrified to find bugs in every bucket!! They look like little moths. Most were dead but some were alive. I then checked the wheat and found what looks like fruit flies in one of the buckets! Lots of them! YUCK!

What do I do! My immediate thought was to dump it in the woods somewhere, but my husband, always practical, thought that there might be some way to save it. I'm still grossed out by it, but on the off chance that he is right, I thought I would post to see if I could get some advice.

I'm feeling so defeated now! I thought I had my food storage almost complete :-( Any advice is appreciated.

Marie

-- Marie (a7656@hotmail.com), October 24, 1998

Answers

Marie,

Go to a good organic nursery and get a bag of diatomacious earth. Be sure and get the right kind that is safe (and perhaps beneficial) for human consumption. Use a mask over your mouth when you mix it. Add 1 cup to every 40lbs. of grain & corn. The D.E. will not kill the eggs, but will kill the hatched bugs and keep them from producing more eggs.

Texas Terri

-- Terri Symington (TJSYM@AOL.com), October 24, 1998.


Marie, don't worry about those bugs. Just be sure to kill them by methods suggested in many places. You have been eating bugs and other "additives" all your life. For example, near where I live, every year thousands of tons of wheat is stored in huge piles outdoors for months before it is loaded into trains. Birds, mice, rats, skunks, etc. enhance the flavor. I've often eaten raw, enhanced cow grain and it gave me a great sense of humor.

-- trying to forget (seenit@before.com), October 24, 1998.

Marie,

Anyone who likes the taste of apple cider, (and we're talking the real, almost opaque stuff here, not the clear filtered apple juice sometimes referred to as cider) and who buys it at a neighborhood apple orchard, ahs enjoyed the flavor of (at least but not limited to) worms (earth), worms (fruit), twigs, mushrooms (rarely), bird droppings, horse/cattle droppings (deer too). I have gathered "drops" for cider and we weren't really careful what went into the bag, or the relative ripeness of the apples either. (And if you are thinking UNDER ripe, you have gone the wrong way on the continuum!!)

cr

-- Chuck a Night Driver (rienzoo@en.com), October 24, 1998.


Marie, I freeze all my buckets of grain for two days before sealing them. it kills everything. Then I pack the bucket with an O2 absorber.

-- Paul Milne (fedinfo@halifax.com), October 24, 1998.

Mr. Milne, thanks for your efforts. My mom called me after watching CNN and said, "Mike, I'm scared, what do we have to start doing." This after months of trying to convince her. You did get your message out.

Now, what exactly is an o2 absorber?

Mike __________________________________________________________________

-- Michael Taylor (mtdesign3@aol.com), October 25, 1998.



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