Please help; do bay-leaves really repel pests?

Murrmurr

Murrmurr

SF VIP
Location
Sacramento, California
When you live in an apartment, your neighbor's bugs are your bugs and vice-versa, and sometimes they're in the groceries you buy, in stuff you buy at a thrift store, etc. So anyway, my mom and grandma told me that crushed bay-leaves and peppermint oil (or extract?) will keep weevils from getting into your flour and other grain-stuff.

I mounted a huge battle against weevils a few months ago and then sprinkled crushed bay-leaves in my cabinets and a chest of drawers I have in the kitchen for dry goods, but when I opened a canister of oatmeal this morning it was one massive can of worms. These aren't weevils, they look like maggots except twice the length, and they're dry, not slimy, and have a tiny black head. Maybe some were already in the oatmeal when I bought it. I didn't find any anywhere else in that drawer where I kept it, so maybe the bay-leaf contained them but I'm not sure.

Is bay-leaf right? Or was it basil? Maybe I don't remember right. Is there some other thing I can use?

And what the heck are these worms?...if you know, I'd like to know. Moths, maybe? In oatmeal tho?
 

I’ve kept a couple of Tupperware spice containers in my walk in pantry with bay leaves in them ( no lid on containers ) since I’ve been in this home and that’s almost 15 years I’ve never had a issue with weevils in my pantry which can be a problem from time to time for dry foods like flour / rice and any other bean type of foods.

Ive bought dry soup mix in winter that’s sealed and found weevils in it on getting it home .
so it can be in food products when you buy them

I tried peppermint to deter ants at a previous home in the city it did nothing for me .

I did have a problems with ants here once ..it’s a pretty dry part of Australia where I live but we had a very humid spell one summer and the ants went crazy running in circles and invading everyone’s homes... I took everything out of the pantry floor area and sprayed with low odour surface spay ( only on the floor area along the skirting board ) never seen another ant
🐜
 
when we moved here neighbor told me ants were an issue ...........told me to use bay leaves......... I thought it was an old wives tale....I bought several pest products but only partial success so i put leaves in cupboards and pantry etc no problem since..... I just replace them like every 6 months.
those sound weird did you look up on internet to find like worm to know what your dealing with?
 

Jeni said:
when we moved here neighbor told me ants were an issue ...........told me to use bay leaves......... I thought it was an old wives tale....I bought several pest products but only partial success so i put leaves in cupboards and pantry etc no problem since..... I just replace them like every 6 months.
those sound weird did you look up on internet to find like worm to know what your dealing with?
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I did, and I think it's a moth. I'm not positive tho.

So bay-leaf is correct. Good to know, but I didn't even think of refreshing it. Every 6 months sound good so I'll do that.
 
I experienced something similar when I opened a can of old psyllium that was sitting in the pantry for several years. There were some type of bugs in it. Since it was sealed can, there were probably eggs in it that hatched.

I don't know what kind of worms were in your oatmeal, but if the container was sealed, there were probably eggs or larvae in it when it was packaged. The worms may have seen the advertising about oatmeal lowering cholesterol. 😊
 
Murrmurr said:
I did, and I think it's a moth. I'm not positive tho.

So bay-leaf is correct. Good to know, but I didn't even think of refreshing it. Every 6 months sound good so I'll do that.
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I might be putting my foot in my mouth here .. 😀 😀 without looking it up @Murrmurr but ( I think )
Weevils turn into moths that’s often the first sign you have weevils ...maybe try googling
 
I keep all my rice, pasta, and flour in my fridge now a days because of that happening in the past. I just keep mainly my canned goods and extra mayo, some boxed items in my pantry.

It's all in my extra vegetable bin...
 
I keep my sugar and flour in the fridge because of the past also. And it is bay leaf. Used it in the past. I don't buy the large containers of oatmeal anymore because of the bugs. The little packets work best for me. I look at it carefully but so far no bugs.
 
dobielvr said:
I keep all my rice, pasta, and flour in my fridge now a days because of that happening in the past. I just keep mainly my canned goods and extra mayo, some boxed items in my pantry.

It's all in my extra vegetable bin...
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The fridge in my apartment is too small for that. I don't have much cupboard space, either. I have a chest of drawers in the dining area and that's where I keep stuff like pasta, rice, instant soup and other dry goods. It's now got bay leaf sprinkled in all the drawers, and now I know to change it all out for fresh bay leaf every once in a while. So far, no bugs.
 
Murrmurr said:
The fridge in my apartment is too small for that. I don't have much cupboard space, either. I have a chest of drawers in the dining area and that's where I keep stuff like pasta, rice, instant soup and other dry goods. It's now got bay leaf sprinkled in all the drawers, and now I know to change it all out for fresh bay leaf every once in a while. So far, no bugs.
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Bay leaves do work, but some extra protection, scatter some cloves around. The bugs won't harm you since they carry no disease. Just to put your mind at rest, haha, if you like chocolate, you've probably eaten body parts of cockroaches and you're still here 🤣
 
I have read that bay leave repel roaches. But your apartment manager should have every apartment exterminated at the same time to take care of that problem. We had a problem here a couple of times (not fun), don't know where it came from and management had an exterminators come in. The last and most successful extermination was when the man dropped what looked like a granulated substance (not much either) behind the stove. That was about a year and a half ago and I haven't seen one in here since.

I've always kept my dry goods in containers with screw on tops or put the boxes in closed plastic bags. One reason is because I used to get ants in here. Some came in through the kitchen floor and some by my entryway in the living/dining area. One year they were so aggressive in the kitchen that they were climbing all up the walls and into my cabinets. I had lived here for 44 years by then and never saw anything like it. My sister hipped me to Ortho Home Defense. I sprayed that in the kitchen, in front of my patio door and at the entry way and never saw that variety ants since. A couple of years ago my son saw a few "regular" ones in the living room. More Ortho and haven't seen ants since.
 
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Dana said:
Bay leaves do work, but some extra protection, scatter some cloves around. The bugs won't harm you since they carry no disease. Just to put your mind at rest, haha, if you like chocolate, you've probably eaten body parts of cockroaches and you're still here 🤣
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I knew there was something that provided that crunch........
 
OneEyedDiva said:
I have read that bay leave repel roaches. But your apartment manager should have every apartment exterminated at the same time to take care of that problem. We had a problem here a couple of times (not fun), don't know where it came from and management had an exterminators come in. The last and most successful extermination was when the man dropped what looked like a granulated substance (not much either) behind the stove. That was about a year and a half ago and I haven't seen one in here since.

I've always kept my dry goods in containers with screw on tops or put the boxes in closed plastic bags. One reason is because I used to get ants in here. Some came in through the kitchen floor and some by my entryway in the living/dining area. One year they were so aggressive in the kitchen that they were climbing all up the walls and into my cabinets. I had lived here for 44 years by then and never saw anything like it. My sister hipped me to Ortho Home Defense. I sprayed that in the kitchen, in front of my patio door and at the entry way and never saw that variety ants since. A couple of years ago my son saw a few "regular" ones in the living room. More Ortho and haven't seen ants since.
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Management here is really vigilant about pest control. An exterminator comes every month to spray all outside perimeters of each unit, and if anyone reports pests indoors, that whole unit gets a notice on how to prepare your apartment for an indoor treatment, and to be gone for 4 hours. I've gotten that notice 4 times in the 6 years I've lived here.

I didn't report the bugs in my oatmeal because I didn't see them anywhere else, and I did a thorough search. To be honest, doing the prep for the indoor treatments is a drag! You gotta empty all your cupboards, pull all the furniture away from the walls, and cover everything up with sheets and blankets and find somewhere to go for 4 hrs - then you have to wash all the sheets and blankets, and I wash all my dishes too before I put them back in the cupboard. So I wasn't too quick to report the Quaker Canister Colony. :sneaky:
 
I have read that bay leave repel roaches. But your apartment manager should have every apartment exterminated at the same time to take care of that problem. We had a problem here a couple of times (not fun), don't know where it came from and management had an exterminators come in. The last and most successful extermination was when the man dropped what looked like a powdered substance (not much either) behind the stove. That was about a year and a half ago and I haven't seen one in here since.

I've always kept my dry goods in containers with screw on tops or put the boxes in closed plastic bags. One reason is because I used to get ants in here. Some came in through the kitchen floor and some by my entryway in the living/dining area. One year they were so aggressive in the kitchen that they were climbing all up the walls and into my cabinets. I had lived here for 44 years by then and never saw anything like it. My sister hipped me to Ortho Home Defense. I sprayed that in the kitchen, in front of my patio door and at the entry way and never saw that variety ants since. A couple of years ago my son saw a few "regular" ones in the living room. More Ortho and haven't seen ants since.
Murrmurr said:
Management here is really vigilant about pest control. An exterminator comes every month to spray all outside perimeters of each unit, and if anyone reports pests indoors, that whole unit gets a notice on how to prepare your apartment for an indoor treatment, and to be gone for 4 hours. I've gotten that notice 4 times in the 6 years I've lived here.

I didn't report the bugs in my oatmeal because I didn't see them anywhere else, and I did a thorough search. To be honest, doing the prep for the indoor treatments is a drag! You gotta empty all your cupboards, pull all the furniture away from the walls, and cover everything up with sheets and blankets and find somewhere to go for 4 hrs - then you have to wash all the sheets and blankets, and I wash all my dishes too before I put them back in the cupboard. So I wasn't too quick to report the Quaker Canister Colony. :sneaky:
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Honestly Murrmurr...I think spraying is an outdated method. People I know who've had their apartments done that way report persistent problems. A friend of mine is currently going through that and unfortunately, she's blind. At least a couple of decades ago, exterminators had gone to the gel method which didn't necessitate moving things from the cabinets, didn't cause the smell or introduce dangerous chemicals into the home environment. My mother lived in a senior apartment building and the gel worked better than the spray. She used to think that perhaps they diluted the spray and that's why it wasn't effective.
 
OneEyedDiva said:
Honestly Murrmurr...I think spraying is an outdated method. People I know who've had their apartments done that way report persistent problems. A friend of mine is currently going through that and unfortunately, she's blind. At least a couple of decades ago, exterminators had gone to the gel method which didn't necessitate moving things from the cabinets, didn't cause the smell or introduce dangerous chemicals into the home environment. My mother lived in a senior apartment building and the gel worked better than the spray. She used to think that perhaps they diluted the spray and that's why it wasn't effective.
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That's going into the manager's suggestion box. Thank you, Miss Diva.
 
If I open a package like oatmeal and there are bugs in it; it goes right back to the store for a refund. As for other pests, I have tried homemade remedies and most don't work for me except maybe peppermint oil which I tap a few drops under the sink and behind fridge and stove. I used the spray Ant Out for my ants and they are gone (for now). All my dry stuff like pasta, etc is dumped in a sealed container when opened. Flour in a glass jar in fridge freezer; ditto for extra nuts, pancake mix, dry rice.
 
A bit of info about spraying:
Five years ago, I decided it was time to treat my house for termites, since I was seeing little piles of what looked like sawdust - which I later found out were termite droppings.
I got estimates from companies that used gas and some that used safer methods like Orange Oil. I wasn't comfortable with Nerve Gas used in my house.
As I expected, the companies that didn't invest in training & equipment for the safer methods said only their method was effective - which meant tenting the house, packing up everything having to move out for 2-3 days. And, of course I would have to sign a waiver so they wouldn't be responsible for damage to my roof from that heavy tent. How nice!
I ended up hiring a company that uses Orange Oil & guarantees no live termites. I didn't have to leave the house - I only had to leave the room they were working on for a couple of hours. The house smelled nice for 2 weeks - like orange. I wondered about the effectiveness.

I found out how effective it was 4 years later when I had to rebuild a section of wall, floor & ceiling because of water damage from a leaking upstairs shower. That area previously had the most termite droppings of the whole house.
While it was being demolished, I looked through the whole area with a powerful flashlight for any sign of live termites. There was NOTHING alive anywhere. And now, 6 years later, not a single termite dropping anywhere in the house.

So, when pest control companies say the safer methods are not effective, they're really saying, "We don't use them, so we'll try to convince you they're no good to get your money."
 


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