A LONG while, so if you go through it pretty fast, no problem.
I use The World’s Best Cat Litter. I have three cats and two litter boxes. Two of the cats go exclusively outside, God bless their furry butts. The third cat uses only one of the boxes and never goes near the other one (Executive Washroom, I guess). So the neglected box has sat in an alcove in the bathroom untouched by human or feline paws for many, many months.
About three weeks ago, I noticed all of these little tiny bugs in the bathroom. I feed the cats in the bathroom up on the counter so the dogs can’t get their food. I kind of assumed food/fat residue in the bowls was the attractant, but I’ve been doing this for two and a half years and no bugs. I also thought it might be some kind of seasonal thing, as when I lived in the country, various plagues would show up for a few weeks and then just disappear.
This morning, while I was sweeping up the latest crop of bugs-- tiny, about the size of a grain of coarse pepper, and maybe a total of 1/4 teaspoon of bugs-- I looked in the alcove at the other pan. Yikes! It was swarming with the little critters!
Then, as I was carrying the box out to the back yard, a light bulb went off over my head: corn-based. I came in and googled, which is always the first line of recourse (the second being the SDMB) and sure enough. I think the person in this article is overreacting a little, as this only happened to litter that sat untouched for a long time. If you cycle through it in a month or so, there shouldn’t be any problem. Unless, I guess, it sat in a warehouse for months and months before you bought it. I’ve been using this litter for years, ever since it came out, and this is the first bug infestation I’ve seen.
The bugs are sawtoothed grain beetles.
The World’s Best Cat Litter is THE best I’ve ever used in 40 years of scooping cat excrement. I don’t plan to switch but I’m wondering if someone here thinks there’s a better, problem-free litter?