HELP! BUGS IN MY DILL WEED JARS!

Hi. I just had the same thing happen & immediately got online to see if I might need to go to the hospital. Shook the dill weed container onto a heap of salmon & tuna & immediately stopped when I could tell it didn't look like it's usual self. Went on & stirred it in & ate my sandwich with it but afterwards looked at the container more closely to see that the whole bottom part of the container looked like it had gone bad. Like described here-black dirt looking with stringy threads hanging onto the bottom when turned upside down. Online you only read that dried herbs lose flavor, not go bad. Couldn't see anything moving in there but definitely threw the container out. Now wondering how toxic what I did eat could be? Gross! I had this large container for too long & may have gone with the lid off once or twice. Did this thread ever determine what critter this probably was that was living/eating/pooping while sealed off from air in my old dried dill?

okay, this has to be the same bug and I figured out how to clean them and kill them and be rid of them.

I think they came from produce from Aldi's and then they fed on rotten bananas for a while and just managed to be in everything after that, including dry goods.

I had to take my cabinets apart and used a product called SOL-U-MEL by a company called "MELALEUCA". I sprayed it everywhere and let it sit for a day then washed out the cabinets and then did the spray again.

I did this 2 times and it has cleared it up.

Since you have to join Melaleuca.com another way to do this on your own is to go buy some TEA TREE OIL and mix it with some water in a spray bottle and shake it up and spray it on the bugs. it kills them instantly. You may have to do this a few times.

The oil is natural and safe but it stinks but it works...

Good luck guys!

This insect is known as a pharmacy bug. It eats everything, but loves anything dry such as flour, spices, starches, cereal. They will hunt out crumbs and spread. They even eat through packaging! Hard to get rid of, you need to find the source of their food. We're still trying to find the source in our house.

I believe these bugs are either the bean weevil or cowpea weevil (mostly in the south, but if you purchased infested food may also be the cowpea weevil). I have the same thing. They came from the grocery store. I had to do my own research and found the information on the Terminix website. http://www.terminix.com/Information/Pest-Identification/Pantry_Pests/Bean_Weevil/. Hope this helps. Mine started out as an infestation of the larvae and then a few months later, I started seeing these bugs all over the place. They were coming out of my wood floor (the wood planks are not sealed together, so there are many cracks). I have since put all of my food in sealed plastic containers, and the bugs are becoming fewer and fewer.

If the insects weren't flying around until you opened the jar, they probably were already in the dill weed when it was put in the jar- perhaps in the egg stage. It may even be they're specific to dill (though other related herbs like parsley could still be at risk).

If you want to prevent a re-occurrence, you might try freezing herbs to kill off the bugs. Some bugs can survive it, but most will die off. Freezing for long periods of time, and alternating periods of freezing and thawing may improve your chances of getting them all.

There are quite a few stored product pests that might attack dried herbs, but most of them are moths or beetles, not flies.

We found exactly the same thing in our store-bought dill spice. Then we stripped our cupboards completely of all dry goods but we can't get rid of them.

about 1-2 mm length, brown, oval, primarily in packaged dried dill, but also in flour, cereal, oatmeal, and other dry goods. Not scuttle flies or mealy bugs or weevils. images don't even come close. Pervasive and invasive -- they fly and are everywhere now but can't find another source.

The only flies I can think of that might be infesting your dill weed jars are "scuttle flies" in the family Phoridae. I know I have them in my kitchen disposal when I put spoiled lettuce or spinach leaves through it....I suppose they could also be dark-winged fungus gnats, family Sciaridae. Both families of flies feed as larvae on mostly decaying vegetation. Phorids run, in a stop-and-go, erratic fashion, more than they fly. Sciarids are weak fliers.