Small brown bugs in kitchen

thegeezer

OK these little ^&*$£s are driving me mad. Started seeing them about a month ago, and last weekend really went to town on them. Cleaned and bleached ALL cupboards, threw out all unopened and opened boxes/cartons/tins/packets, bought in SMALL quantities of new stuff and cleaned out local supermarket of their sealable tupperwares, glass jars and anything which can be sealed (ya woman looked at me like I was a looper till I explained what was going on - then she freaked and said she is going home to disinfect entire gaff !!). I now have everything in clean cupboards, in sealed containers, and the missus is frightened to leave even a breadcrumb on the counter ! I also read that they do not like bay leaves so the place looks like I am trying to ward off evil spirits. But still I am seeing two or three a day !!
OK, pictures attached, they seem to love light, white things (I have seen them on counters regularly, white towels and white tables), they move VERY slowly but can fly (look like fruit flies when in flight). I have heard that orange oil disinfectant/polish is a deterrent, but the whole bay leaf thing looks like a myth as I keep finding them reclining lazily on my "traps" !!
Going crazy, I feel my skin crawling all the time, I think I have done everything I can to defeat these little shoits, can anyone give me any more advice on what else I can do please ?
Thanks to all who reply - pictures attached.

Eldarion

Time to get a exterminator in. The consistent rate you are seeing them definitely indicates you have an infestation near by.

Chances are you'll see less and less of them as we come in to Winter but don't be surprised if you they come back in the Spring if you don't get a professional in.

jester77

Going by your description they look similar to some bugs I had recently in the kitchen, pictures are a little blurry so hard to tell. I noticed one press contained a lot of them and I did some hunting. Found a lot of them in a box of tea in one of the presses, can't remember the tea, some sort of a fruit tea. I would guess they got into the house in this tea and started reproducing. I threw out the tea and killed the ones that were around. That solved the problem, haven't seen any since then.

thegeezer

Any suggestions on reasonable exterminators in Cork please ?

Pretzill

It's really hard to tell what they are from the pics. But fruit flies have been rampant this year and their little larvae look like grass seed?

Do you keep a bin in the kitchen? Or any vegetable waste? Remove it. I've had these little buggers used to have a veg rack but now I have to keep veg in the fridge and like yourself tubberware and jars. What mutiplied mine was a bag of potatoes that had fallen behind the veg rack and was completely destroyed by fruit flies - Any veg that come in plastic bags need to be removed straight away. I reckon my came already packaged in some veg!

Once you have removed all food sources, micro cleaned each corner they should abate - but if fruit flies they are mad this year alright.

RebelButtMunch

Try an egg cup filled with balsamic vinegar add a drop of washing up liquid to break the surface tension and then a piece of banana skin.

jester77

Pretzill wrote: »

It's really hard to tell what they are from the pics. But fruit flies have been rampant this year and their little larvae look like grass seed?

Do you keep a bin in the kitchen? Or any vegetable waste? Remove it. I've had these little buggers used to have a veg rack but now I have to keep veg in the fridge and like yourself tubberware and jars. What mutiplied mine was a bag of potatoes that had fallen behind the veg rack and was completely destroyed by fruit flies - Any veg that come in plastic bags need to be removed straight away. I reckon my came already packaged in some veg!

Once you have removed all food sources, micro cleaned each corner they should abate - but if fruit flies they are mad this year alright.

Fruit flies are a real pest alright. It only takes 8 days for them to reach adulthood. There is a tip that may help. Pour about an inch of apple cider vinegar into a glass, get a small bag, put a tiny hole in a corner and push this corner down into the glass. Put an elastic band around the bag and glass. This will attract the flies into the glass and trap a lot of them.

pawrick

Looks very like a cigarette or a bread beetle after a quick google- procedure for getting rid of both is the same and probably for any other type seen around food i.e. remove all accessible sources of food and clean everything.
They were probably carried in on some food you bought or packing. I had an infestation of weevils in one apartment which I traced back to a bag of bird seed I had put in the cupboard, once it was removed and any other source of food in the kitchen was cleared out they died off and disappeared.I also bought lots of plastic containers to store cereal in until sure.

thegeezer

thanks for all the advice - don't think they are fruit flies though - had some of those and they look different. I believe they may be buscuit beetles. Will try the cider vinegar thing for the fruit flies though.

Any experiences with bay leaves and/or orange oil disinfectant (and any ideas where to get this apart from import via Amazon ?)

Bicycle

I've had an infestation of flour mites over the last couple of months. They look similar to what you have but don't fly.

You see the little buggers but you also see what looks like creamy microscopic sawdust. On top of flour and around the cupboards.

I've done a total clean out but they are still there albeit in smaller numbers. And I'm killing as I go. I may try the steam cleaner in the crevices in the next week (I think they are hiding in between the edges of the shelves and the side walls).

One tip I came across was to freeze all of the dried goods in the cupboard for about 48 hours. It apparently kills any eggs or larva. And like you've put everything in plastic bags and containers. I'm also putting drops of orange oil in the cupboards. Worst case scenario they smell nice

This is a recipe for Orange Oil Disinfectant. I got my orange oil in the local health food shop http://aromatherapy4u.wordpress.com/2013/04/28/using-orange-oil-to-disinfect-surfaces-air-freshener/

Good luck. If you find anything that is non-toxic and really works, let me know please!!

thegeezer

Thanks Bicycle and all - looks like will be busy again this weekend !!

Tips for anyone (gleaned from own mistakes) :-

1. Don't hoard food - THIS has shown what a false economy that was !
2. Keep space in the freezer to ice the little snadlits
3. Don't keep that exotic spice you brought in from India - they seem to LOVE this kind of stuff