The Scenario: I took a glass out of my kitchen cabinet. I pushed it against my refrigerator ice dispenser lever and I received about 5 pieces of ice. I poured 1% milk into the cup.* I started to walk to the table and then I noticed that there is a dark spot on the top piece of ice. I look more closely and I notice it is a tiny lifeless bug. Normally this wouldn’t disturb me too much; I try not to be a hyper-sensitive germaphobe. But actually I am a little disturbed because this is THE SECOND TIME in about 2 weeks that this exact situation has happened. I happened to notice the bugs because the bugs are dark and were laying on the top piece of ice against a backdrop of white milk. This probably means there have been many more bugs but I just haven’t noticed them.
The Bug: I fished him out and put him on a white paper towel. It is 2mm long from head to tail. Antenna are about another 0.5 mm. It is more flat than an ant. After about 15 minutes on the white paper towel he started to move lethargically. He looked like he has had a bad day. Photograph is here. I am sorry it is not a better photo; I don’t have a macro lens.
The Questions: What kind of bug is it? Where did it come from? Can I do something to not drink more bugs?
The Investigation: It seems to me that the bug had to come from one of three places:
The Cup System (cup/cabinet) – The cup came from the washing machine not long before, so the bug would have had to come from the kitchen cabinet. I look around in the cabinet but I do not see any more bugs. There is no food near the cups, mostly just other clean dishes.
Result: inconclusive
The Ice System - This was my first thought since he was sitting on top of the ice when I saw him. I emptied out the entire ice holding bin, but found no other bugs. I looked at the ice maker (or what I could see of it) and didn’t see anything. I looked at the route from the bin to outside of the freezer and didn’t find anything**. There are two reasons I am skeptical of this delivery vector. First, it is unlikely that many bugs could thrive in the freezer environment. Second, the bug was not frozen in the ice, it was just on top of the ice.
Result: inconclusive
The Milk System (milk/jug) – The bug (later concluded to still be alive) coming from the actual milk seems doubtful because of pasteurization, right? I was thinking that maybe the bug may have been in the jug when the milk was added, but I can’t imagine it not drowning in that amount of time. He would have to be a really resilient fellow. I keep the twist-on top on my milk when not pouring it, so I don’t think he could have gotten in later.
Result: inconclusive
The Cry for Help: Help me, online investigators, you’re my only hope! Help me not drink more bugs!
Why yes, I do put ice in my milk. I put ice in most of my other beverages, why not milk?
** Actually I found a disturbing amount of some mold-like substance on the external ice flap up in the dispenser. Luckily this doesn’t really touch the ice, but it is nasty. I will need to work on that.
Unless the ice is either dry ice or frozen milk, it’s going to water the milk down. There is absolutely nothing more disgusting than watered down milk, so you must not be as hypersensitive as you think.
Good thought. I’ll check to see if there are any visable in any of the flour-like substances in our kitchen.
This is a bit off topic, but I’ll respond. This is non-issue for several reasons:
It does not get very watered down if your milk and ice (refrigerator and freezer) are cold enough. I actually have the opposite, usually there is a layer of frozen milk on the ice in my cup.
When I make my glass of milk, I usually drink it within 5-10 minutes. I don’t just let it sit around while the ice melts.
Milk is already 87% water, so if it ventures up a percentage or two, I think we are within acceptable tolerances.
Doesn’t look cockroachy to me. The lack of snout (at least in that photo) makes me doubt it’s a weevil, either.
I’m tentaively going with “some kind of beetle.” Don’t ask me which kind of beetle, however. (There are a bunch o’ beetles.)
The photo makes it hard to tell if the little projections on the sides between the forward and aft pairs of legs are actually projections of the wing coverings, or just the middle pair of legs. If they’re part of the shell/wing covers, that would help narrow it down.
Most likely a Confused Flour BeetleTribolium confusum, although it could be some other kind of flour beetle.
You almost certainly have an infestation in a bag of flour, box of macaroni, or other grain product somewhere in your cabinets. When the beetles emerge, since they are so small they can turn up almost any place.
You need to clean out your cabinets to find the source of the infestation.
You almost certainly have an infestation in a bag of flour, box of macaroni, or other grain product somewhere in your cabinets. When the beetles emerge, since they are so small they can turn up almost any place.
You need to clean out your cabinets to find the source of the infestation.
Welcome. It’s not uncommon for people to revive a zombie post. You search for something, a link to SDMB pops up and you think “That’s interesting”, and add a comment. It never occurs to you to look at the dates.
Welcome, @Shellielee . While we do allow bumping of zombie threads here, we ask that it only be done to add substantive new information. “I like ice in my milk” isn’t enough reason to bump a thread.
