this post was submitted on 29 Oct 2024
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These things appeared in friends flat. What are they?

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[–] [email protected] -2 points 7 hours ago (1 children)

That's a mealworm, and they make great fish bait, or lizard food.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 2 hours ago

That isn't a mealworm. Mealworms are chonkier and have brown-yellow color and dark brown ringed hue. They grow into darkling beetle. Grain worms have white color and brown head. They grow to grain moth.

[–] [email protected] 46 points 8 hours ago (2 children)

Grain moth larva. Good luck. The damn things are a pain to get rid of once you have them. You'll want to pitch any food that isn't 100% air tight sealed (bags or boxes of cereal, rice, flour, sugar, noodles, etc.) and then clean out any cabinets really well to make sure you get rid of as many eggs as possible. After that make sure you don't leave any food unsealed for the next few months because odds are they will keep popping back up ocasionally for a bit and if they can get into anything when they do then the infestation starts all over. As far as infestations go they aren't the worst to deal with but they are anoying.

[–] [email protected] 8 points 7 hours ago

Whay they πŸ‘† said, have fun. They're a pain in the ass to get rid of.

[–] [email protected] 28 points 7 hours ago (2 children)

Not just sealed. They will get into sealed cardboard boxes and through thin plastic. Like bags, forget it. Everything either needs to go into glass, metal, the fridge, or thick plastic, like tupperware. Also they will eat stuff you'd never expect, like spices, even hot pepper.

[–] [email protected] 1 points 24 minutes ago

Yup. I had an infestation thar took months to get rid of. Turns out they were in an old bag of dried peppers.

[–] [email protected] 3 points 8 hours ago (1 children)

Looks like some fried rice I got once in Santa Carla back in the 80s. Thinking about it, eating take out with some dudes in a cave under a pier probably was not the smartest of things to do.

[–] [email protected] 6 points 7 hours ago* (last edited 7 hours ago)

You're still going on about that? They were only noodles, Michael! Noodles and rice. Tell me, how could a billion Chinese people be wrong?

[–] [email protected] 2 points 10 hours ago* (last edited 10 hours ago)

~~I'm quite outside of my expertise here, but I think it might be a mealworm. A beetle larvae. That would technically make it not a maggot (which are fly larvae).~~

~~But it's just a guess.~~

@[email protected]'s suggestion fits better.

[–] [email protected] 48 points 10 hours ago (1 children)

Yes, it is. If they’re in a flat, probably flour moths. Your friend should check any containers with food, especially grains.

[–] [email protected] 47 points 10 hours ago

We eventually found the source. They came from a pack of dried figs.

[–] [email protected] 15 points 10 hours ago (1 children)
[–] [email protected] 5 points 7 hours ago

HAKUNA.... MATATA!