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Pepper moth larvae in my pepper's?

Bobby86

Bobby86

I found a bunch of maggots/larvae in a jar of pepper powder I made last fall. I had it in my cabinet since I made it and I knew something was up as soon as I took it down. the yellow powder has turned brown/black and is full of these little nasties. when I opened it up a moth flew out which I killed and discarded before thinking about saving it to ID it. I sealed the jar back up  and am turning to you guys for help. Does anyone have an idea as to what the heck these moths from hell are and how did they infest my peppers like this? I used a one time seasonal treatment for my plants to prevent insects maybe these moths aren't covered for that treatment. Also when I dehydrated my pods I inspected every single pod and they all looked okay to me these eggs must have been really small for me to miss then and for them to survive the dehydrating process and a trip through a coffee blender. I am starting my seedling soon and this has me worried sick I am throwing out all my powder and the few pounds of pods I had frozen for use in the spring. Any advice would be awesome because as far as I can tell they are European pepper moths and I can't find much information on them.
 
 
You might want to look into Indianmeal Moths. I've had all sorts of trouble with these getting into the cupboards, and they'll eat surprising things. I found some at the bottom of a box of baking powder.
 
I've had a few infestations, which start by buying something infested at the store. In my last case, a bag of almonds. They will get into everything that's not tightly sealed. They'll eat holes in plastic bags. I hate them.
 
Tell tale signs are "webs" at the bottom of boxes of grains and powders. Shift a box around, and look for particles hanging at the bottom. Easiest with clear bags and such.
 
The pupae will crawl around your walls and ceiling, and spread to other cupboards.
 
Did I mention I hate them?
 
If you do have them, investigate everything. Throw out anything infested. Seal up everything else. Kill all the ones you can find, and clean your cupboards out. Supposedly, they can live on stuff that falls in the cracks between the wood.
 
 
Sounds like a bad dream. The problem with that is my powder is sealed in a glass jar and hasn't been opened until I had already seen them inside so it must have been something from when they were growing outside. I also looked inside the closed coffee grinder which has a small amount of powder stuck to the bottom and edges " I only use it to grind up peppers and used it only one time" and I found two dead moths inside. I will try to get some pics posted but may not be able to do so until tomorrow.
 
I had this same problem with a bunch of dried pods a couple years ago. Regular dehydrating temperatures and/or freezing will not kill them. You need to heat your dried pods to at least 145 F. for a period of 15 minutes in order to kill the little buggers. Then, before storing and/or grinding into powders, let them cool someplace where the nasties won't reinfect them.

Yes, you need to kill them and eat them. Removal is impractical. And don' get weirded out over the fact there is a minute amount of dead bug larvae in with your pods/powders. Can you imagine how many there are in pods/powders received from third world countries where the peppers are sun dried, outside, in a pile?
 
Yeah I opened up a jar of sauce that I made and inspected the ferment I have going on, both seem okay for now the only thing that got screwed up was my powder. The only pods I know for sure did not get effected were my carolina reapers which I have some pods I halved and dried they are sealed up and have no signs of any creepers in the jar. I will be looking into preventative measures for this years plants so if anyone has some advice they can shoot my way that would be awesome.
 
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