What is this moth -> Indian Meal Moth + Carpet Beatle?

Chris J. Durden drdn at mail.utexas.edu
Tue May 11 22:54:46 EDT 1999


All,
  In my area the Indian Meal Moth is usually introduced into a home with a
"rastra" or ornamental hanging of dried red chiles. Elswhere in the north,
dried *Boletus* fungus from an ethnic grocery store often brings them in.
.........Chris Durden, Austin TX

At 06:29  12/05/99 -0400, you wrote:
>Indian Meal Moths are extremely clever at getting into seemingly 
>airtight containers.  They are very good at destroying specimens, 
>especially if the moth balls haven't been changed for many months. 
>
>Good repositories for them are bird seed and pasta. Since they infest 
>outside containers of bird seed that hasn't been used up by June, I 
>suspect that they may be coming in in the bird seed but don't reproduce 
>during the cold winter months.
>
>They are extremely interesting creatures that test one's physical 
>mettle. They elude being "clapped" with long, erratic, rising flights. 
>They like to pupate behind picture frames (and occasionally a larva ends 
>up in front of the picture trapped against the glass), and also where 
>the wall meets the ceiling. 
>
>M. Gochfeld
>
>


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