We had a bad bout with pantry moths a couple of years ago, and yeah, they were getting into containers that my wife thought were well-sealed.
She invested in a bunch of OXO POP containers, which have very good seals, and switched over to using those exclusively; we have not had a resurgence of the foul critters since.
I have a large set of those Brilliance containers that I got as a housewarming gift. They are indeed ridiculously air tight. You can’t even sneak in quickly to grab a snack, oh no. You gotta use two hands and open both snaps to get your brownies out. No way are bugs going to get in. They have no hands!
They have a very nice set of baking staples containers too, which come with thoughtful built-in accessories like a terra-cotta disc for brown sugar, scraper to level off flour, and a sifting lid for powdered sugar.
One thing which has no bearing on your pantry…do not store fresh broccoli in a brilliance container in your fridge. Even though it’s air tight somehow the broccoli will manage to stink bomb your whole fridge, kitchen and house. The broccoli will still look perfectly green and fresh, but it will stink to high heaven AND the stank will linger in your container.
I laughed. 
Huh. I was reading about things that should not be vacuum sealed (while realizing that Brilliance containers don’t form a vacuum), and broccoli was on the list, as well as many other raw vegetables and especially mushrooms. Apparently the vacuum, which excludes oxygen, allows anaerobic bacteria to thrive, with terrible results in some cases.
Hmm, I don’t even think my… I mean my really dumb friend’s… broccoli got to that stage. I truly believe that broccoli has a defense mechanism like a skunk and off-gasses until it can off-gas no more. When it finds its life in peril, whether being locked in an air-tight box or boiled in a pot, it gives one last long and mighty death fart. If you are unlucky enough to trap the death fart in your Brilliance, watch out…
Maybe this is why broccoli smells so rank when you microwave it. Blech.
This will work for mice, but not pantry moths. They can crawl through tiny gaps in the lid.
Our solution was throwing out anything contaminated, cleaning really well, and lots of pheromone traps. I like the traps because they not only get rid of the moths, they will let you know if moths have come back.
After throwing out almost literally everything in the affected cabinet, there’s been no recurrence yet, thank goodness. The cabinets are clean and empty, with lots of new pheromone traps with no activity for days. Almost hate to say this (tempting the gods) but it’s weird, the moths seem to have been confined to a single cabinet. The other cabinets still have things like flour and beans, but nothing looks contaminated and the traps placed in the other cabinets are still pristine.
Still, everything that remains is going to get transferred to the new Rubbermaids. Looks like I’m going to need a few more sets. I’m thinking of all this as a nice thorough spring cleaning two years after the early-pandemic grain hoarding.
@Shoeless, btw your story was nightmare-inducing. My condolences. If I ever have the need to get a big barrel of anything tasty like birdseed, or something even more tasty like human food, I think I’d be looking at one of those 6-gallon bucket, mylar, and vacuum systems the survivalist preppers like.
I had a couple spiders take up residence in my pantry and they ate all the moths as they escaped whatever they’d emerged from. I think it was rolled oats. They had set up so that I could get stuff in and out without disturbing them.
The spiders were eventually relocated after their services were no longer required. They’d grown quite a bit.
Sorry to continue on the mouse hijack, but I biked w/ my sister. Apparently she hired a guy to put rodent-proof caulk along the lowest panel of siding on her house. She already had wire mesh crammed in under that siding.
Hasn’t seen a mouse for a couple of weeks, but isn’t taking any chances.
Back to Mothra.
We had a big pantry moth outbreak that went in fits in starts for several months. We eventually won the war, though, by employing a combination of airtight plastic containers and diligently setting Black Flag pest traps. We tried other brands/types of traps, but found the Black Flag ones to be by far the most effective.
This is what we did too. And we overdid on the traps. The instructions said one per room, but we put them everywhere. On top of the cupboards, on the fridge, on the window sills. Every flat place we didn’t eat/prepare food on. We had so many that we were replacing traps every week instead of every three months. It took a couple months to get totally rid of them. We still put out a trap in the kitchen, changing it every three months. Better safe than going thru that again.
Update, they seem to be mostly under control, but last night there was one flying around the living room looking lost. I didn’t manage to catch him.
The Orkin man came for his regular ant-prevention visit and we discussed the moths. He said I’m doing everything right so far, but should also apply some bleach or ammonia (not both mixed!) to every seam and crack in the affected cabinets. That ought to kill the pupae which will still be lurking there.
If you don’t have pheromone traps, get some. They work really well.
We haven’t had an outbreak in years (knock on wood) but when we did, we cleared it with traps.
Oh, yes. And seconding others’ thoughts upthread, it’s possible to overdo the traps and confuse the moths into avoiding them all. One per cabinet, max.
Earlier this evening, my kitchen counter was COVERED with ants. Hundreds, literally, and I have no idea where they came from or what they had found. I wonder if they discovered some crumbs in a crumpled-up dishtowel, so I gathered up the dishtowels on that counter and put them on my deck chair for the time being. I also wiped down everything and put out a Terro trap, on top of spraying the floor at the edges. I hope this works.
I should add that in the meantime, I found an obscure crack between the wall, the counter, and a cabinet, and spritzed that with bug spray. I hope THAT works too.
Later today, I’m going to ask my neighbor, whose kitchen abuts mine, if she’s had similar issues. She has at least two children, so who knows what kind of mess may be lurking in her kitchen without her knowledge?
Sealing it is a better long-term strategy, and avoids poisons near your food.
I hope you don’t mind me bumping this thread from last year (ZOMBIE MOTHS!)…
I have been battling pantry months for the last couple of months. So far it is a minor infestation, and I am only seeing a few of them flying around, and a few more stuck to the pheromone traps.
But what is really frustrating is that, for the two cabinets where they have shown up in the traps, I cannot find the moths in my food. This weekend (for I think the third time), I spent two hours checking and cleaning the two cupboards. We have lots of Indian lentils and spices, as well as the usual grains, pastas, cookies, etc. I checked them all and there were none of the usual telltale signs: moths, maggots, small holes, silk/webs, dust, nothing. I tossed a few things that were well past their expiry date, but didn’t actually find any proof that the moths had infested the food. I don’t get it.
Are they visiting from somewhere else and getting stuck on the traps? I have traps in all the likely food-containing cupboards in the house, but it is only these two that have caught anyone. Surely if they were coming from elsewhere in the house some would have been caught there too?
I recognise that there may be eggs in the food that I am missing (and probably eating!). But if that were the case, wouldn’t there still be other visible signs?
Bizarre…
Mis-read this thread title…